FOGO is a go in Singleton

Published on 08 July 2025

The Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) service is now live in Singleton, seeing local households step up their commitment to the environment by removing food waste from landfill and transformed into nutrient-rich compost.

Urban and rural households can now place food scraps such as vegetable peels, fruit, bread, meat and dairy in their green bins with garden waste for weekly collection that will be processing into high-quality compost rather than going to landfill.

The red bin has rolled back to a fortnightly collection, going out on the kerb the opposite week to the yellow recycling bin.

Singleton Council General manager Justin Fitzpatrick-Barr said the introduction of the FOGO service and new bin collection configuration represented a big change for Singleton households, but was one that would deliver long lasting benefits to the environment.

“This is more than just a bin service – it’s a meaningful shift in the way we as a community manage our waste and a big step towards reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill,” he said.

“Singleton generates 25,000 tonnes of waste annually, of which 10,500 tonnes is successfully diverted from landfill through various other waste recovery programs like RecycleSmart.

“Diverting food organic waste from landfill means we can increase this rate which benefits the environment and our community by extending the life and productivity of our local landfill.

“FOGO is a simple way for our residents to make a difference every week, but we understand that the change to the way they scrap their food and the new bin collection schedule will take time to get used to.

“We’re already seeing some great ways our residents are remembering or teaching their kids the new bin routine, one of which is to note whether it’s ‘Christmas bin week’, where you put out the green and red bins, or ‘Aussie bin week’ and put out the green and yellow ones.

“Another way to remember which bin needs to go out is to refer to your old schedule, as the collection for the yellow bin has not changed. Put it out for collection as usual and then put your red bin out the following week.”

What to know about the new bin collection schedule:

• Your bin collection day does not change. If your bins have always been collected on a Tuesday, they will still be collected on a Tuesday.
• The green bin with all your food scraps and garden organics will go out every week. It will be collected on your regularly scheduled bin collection day, just weekly.
• Collection day for the yellow bin has not changed. It will go out on your regularly scheduled collection day as per the previous schedule every fortnight.
• The red bin will go out the opposite week to the yellow bin fortnightly unless you have opted in for a weekly red bin collection.
• Alternate fortnightly servicing of the red and yellow bins is in affect for both urban and rural properties. For rural customers that previously had all bins serviced on the same fortnight, the new service schedule is green and yellow one week and green and red the following week, remembering that the yellow stays on the fortnight that it has always been collected.

Mr Fitzpatrick-Barr said Council was supporting the community through the transition with ongoing education and information to help them make the most out of using FOGO.

Information about what can and cannot go in the green bins, tips on using the benchtop caddies, what happens with the organics material after its collected and more is available on Council’s Facebook page and website W singleton.nsw.gov.au/fogo