Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO)


Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) is a kerbside collection service that allows food waste to be added to the existing green lid bin so it can be recycled into top quality compost.

With the introduction of the FOGO service to Singleton on 30 June 2025, the green bin has moved to a weekly collection for both urban and rural residents.

Why have we introduced FOGO?

In 2021, NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) mandated that all NSW Councils would be required to provide every household within their Local Government Area (LGA) a source-separated food and garden organics (FOGO) collection by 1 July 2030.

Currently, 61 of the 128 NSW councils have already implemented a FOGO service to their residents, with many more scheduled to follow suit in 2025/2026, including Singleton Council.

According to the NSW EPA, FOGO will help to divert half a million tonnes of organics from landfills across the State every year by 2027.

What is FOGO?


The Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) service is making your green lid bin even greener.

Starting from 30 June 2025, instead of putting your food scraps in the red lid bin, you’ll put it into the existing green lid bin so it can be recycled into valuable compost instead of being sent to landfill.

FOGO bins can include food scraps like meat, bones, seafood, fruit, vegetables, coffee grounds, tea leaves, and dairy plus garden waste like lawn clippings, leaves, small plants, and flowers. 

What CAN go in your FOGO bin

All food including kitchen scraps and leftovers, and anything that grows in your garden can go into your organics bin. Just remember to remove all packaging, wrapping and stickers first.

  • Supplied compostable kitchen caddy liner bags ONLY
  • Bakery Goods
  • Citrus + Onion
  • Dairy products
  • Fruit + Vegetables
  • Leftover Food Scraps
  • Loose Leaf Tea + Coffee grounds
  • Meat Scraps + Bones
  • Pasta + Rice
  • Seafood + Shells
  • All Weeds
  • Bark + Leaves
  • Grass Clippings + Prunings
  • Flowers
  • Palm fronds
  • Roots
  • Sticks + Small Branches 

 

What CAN'T go in your FOGO bin

  • Bamboo, Compostable Packaging + Utensils
  • Bin Liners or Kitchen Tidy Bin Liner Bags
  • Bricks, Cement or Building Materials
  • Cardboard or Paper
  • Electronic Waste
  • Engineered Wood (Chipboard, MDF, Melamine)
  • Food Scraps in Packaging or Plastic Wrap
  • Household Garbage
  • Nappies
  • Pet Poo or Pet Waste
  • Oils or Chemicals
  • Plastic or biodegradable bags
  • Recyclables
  • Soil or Rocks
  • Styrofoam + Textiles
  • Shade Cloth or Weed Matting
  • Treated or Painted Timber
  • Vacuum Cleaner Dust + Lint
  • Tea Bags

Your kitchen caddy


Ahead of the start of the FOGO service in Singleton on 30 June, all properties across the LGA will receive a 7L benchtop caddy.

Your caddy will come with a roll of 150 compostable liners, a sticker and an info pack on using the caddy and the FOGO service.

What’s the caddy for? To make using the FOGO service even easier! It collects all your scrap before going into green bin.

Keep your caddy near where you prepare and cook food, but out of direct sunlight.

Put all food scraps and approved organics in your caddy and when it’s full or every two to three days, throw everything - liner and all - into your green bin.

Make sure to remove any packaging, plastics, cardboard or stickers before popping your scrap into the caddy.

Only use the liners supplied with your caddy.

To keep your caddy fresh, rinse it out between uses or pop it into the dishwasher. Yes, it's dishwasher safe.

Caddy questions answered

Do I have to use the caddy?

Council is required to supply you with a caddy, but you do not have to use it. If you compost or are already using a caddy system at home, continue to do so! You can collect scraps in any container that suits your kitchen size and design, but only use the liners supplied with your Council issued caddy.

Can I use other caddy liners?

Only the approved liners supplied by Council have been certified for use in your FOGO bin service. Using other caddy liners will contaminate the service and the compost it generates.

What do I do if I run out of liners?

Council will provide an annual delivery of caddy liners to each property. If a property runs out prior to the end of the year, there will be locations where additional liners can be collected free of charge.

Tips for using your kitchen caddy

  • Empty the contents of your kitchen caddy into your existing green bin regularly, every two to three days is a good guide
  • Keep your kitchen caddy handy to where you prepare your food but out of direct sunlight
  • For an uncluttered benchtop, tuck your caddy under the sink or in a compartment in your pull-out bin drawer if you have one
  • Avoid fruit flies by placing a dish with a little apple cider vinegar and a dash of dishwashing liquid near your caddy. This also works well placed next to your fruit bowl - especially if you have bananas!
  • Where you can, layer garden and food organics in your green bin to help control odours

Kerbside bin collection schedule

After considering four options to determine the frequency of the red lid bin collection as part of the FOGO roll out, Singleton councillors resolved on Tuesday 18 February 2025 to introduce the service to all properties utilising the urban and rural split.

  • Rural properties move to a weekly green bin and fortnightly red and yellow bin collection.
  • Urban properties will move to a weekly green bin and fortnightly red and yellow bin collections but with the option to pay an increased domestic waste service charge for a weekly red bin collection.

The cost for urban and rural collections for 2025/2026 are $675 for the default fortnightly red bin collection, and $860 for the weekly opt-in red bin collection for urban residents. 

To opt-in for a weekly red bin collection, complete the online form below.

Red Lid Bin Weekly Service Request

With the introduction of FOGO, both food and garden organics now go into the green bin which will be collected weekly from 30 June 2025 for both urban and rural residents.

Bin sizes have not changed, and your collection day remains the same.

Council’s decision to give urban households the choice in how often their red bin is collected by opting in for a weekly service empowers residents to decide what suits their needs, how much they want to pay, and how they can reduce waste going into landfill by taking up new services. 

What are the benefits of FOGO?

According to the NSW Environment Protection Authority, FOGO will help to divert half a million tonnes of organics from landfills across the State every year, saving councils money on landfill fees and creating a nutrient-rich compost for use in landscaping and agriculture.

On average Singleton Council collects 6,000 tonnes of residual waste from the red bin annually. The most recent bin compositional audit conducted by Council indicated that food and kitchen waste accounted for a quarter of this waste.

By diverting organic waste from landfills, we reduce the harmful health and environmental impacts and maximise the space in our landfill, effectively extending its lifespan. The organics we collect are also transformed into high-quality compost, which completes the recycling loop – from bin to garden and back again.

FOGO helps keep more organic materials out of landfill, offering multiple health, safety, and environmental benefits.

 

What happens to your food scraps?


Organics collected from your green lidded bin will be taken to a nearby composting facility and processed by Australian Native Landscapes (ANL) 
into commercial grade mulch and compost products that can used to improve soil quality in parks, gardens and farms.

This completes the cycle from organics bin to garden bed, making a scrap load of difference!

Your FOGO questions answered

Why can’t we keep our weekly red bin service like Maitland and Cessnock?

To answer this question, it’s important to understand that the domestic waste service charge levied within a property’s rates notice is sanctioned under Section 496 of the Local Government Act. This clause states that the amount of the annual charge is limited to recovering the cost of providing the service to that land. So, this means Council cannot generate a profit from providing residential waste services nor can the funds generated be used for any other Council function.

Singleton Council’s domestic waste service charge will never be identical to any other council as the charge is a result of service numbers, geographical layout, ancillary waste services and other variables. However, it’s always in line with this requirement of the Local Government Act.

The options Council had to choose from regarding the red bin as part of the FOGO service were:

  1. Provide all urban properties with a base service of a weekly red bin collection
  2. Provide all urban properties with a base service of a fortnightly red bin collection
    1. With the option to have a weekly red bin service at an additional cost

Council could have chosen option one and maintained the weekly red bin service for urban properties. However, this would have resulted in all properties being levied the higher domestic waste charge that residents can currently opt-in to pay for a weekly red bin collection.

Cessnock and Maitland council have both indicated that they will give their residents the option to opt-in to a fortnightly red bin collection after they introduce the FOGO service.

This means that Cessnock and Maitland residents will have the same two options as Singleton residents, being a more expensive weekly red bin collection or a cheaper fortnightly red bin collection. The only difference is that Cessnock and Maitland residents start on the higher fee and can a opt down in service level at a lower fee while Singleton residents start on the lowest fee and can opt up in service level for an increased fee.

Why should we pay more to keep a service we have always had?

Currently, urban residents receive a weekly red bin collection and fortnightly green and yellow bin collections, which provides each property with 104 bin collection per year.

Under the NSW EPA’s FOGO mandates, the organics bin must be collected weekly. With a fortnightly red and yellow bin collection, this still provides each property with 104 bin collections per year.

While this is a change in service configuration, there has been no change to service level in terms of bin collections per year.

Under the NSW EPA’s FOGO mandates, the organics bin must be collected weekly. With a fortnightly red and yellow bin collection, this still provides each property with 104 bin collections per year.

While this is a change in service configuration, there has been no change to service level in terms of bin collections per year.

The 2024/25 urban domestic waste charge was $627.50 and the proposed 2025/26 charge is $675. This increase of $47.50 is a result of increases in contract costs and other expenses related to waste collection and processing to deliver the service including 104 collections per property.

To provide any collection service to a property, there is a cost for each bin lift to cover the disposal or processing of the waste collected. Maintaining a weekly red bin service adds an additional 26 collections to each property’s annual service level to give them 130 bin collections per year.

The additional cost for the opt-in weekly red bin service is the overall cost of these additional 26 red bin collections for the year.

Cessnock and Maitland councils have opted to go with option one and maintain a weekly red bin collection. Therefore, their residents will be charged for this level of service that includes 130 collection per annum in their domestic waste service charge.

Council chose option two as it’s the lowest cost of service, while providing flexibility to residents and ensures they are only paying for the service they need and no more.

So, either way if a weekly red bin service is provided to a property the domestic waste service charge will always be the higher rate of the two cost options that residents can currently choose between as that is the cost to deliver the service.

The Council decision allows the residents to make this choice of service level rather than making it for them by choosing option one.

Why is Council implementing FOGO without consulting the community to see if they want it?

The NSW EPA has mandated that all NSW Councils must provide a FOGO service to all properties that have a red bin by July 2030. The mandate also stipulates that the FOGO (green) bin has to be collected on a weekly basis. As these two criteria for the FOGO bin are non-negotiable, there was nothing Council could consult on with residents.

Four options for the collection frequency of the red lid bin were presented to Council at the 18 February 2025 meeting with differing levels of service and associated costs. Option four was selected as the preferred option: Rural properties maintain a fortnightly service and all urban residents receive a fortnightly service with the option of a weekly service at an increased cost to the annual domestic waste service charge.

Why introduce it now when the mandate deadline isn’t until 2030?

The NSW EPA’s FOGO mandate for all households to have a FOGO service has a deadline of July 2030. However, Singleton Council is implementing it now for two main reasons.

The first reason for implementing the FOGO service now is that Council has entered a joint contract with Maitland and Cessnock councils for the collection and processing of organics.

This gives all three councils an economy of scale regarding waste volumes and collection numbers. This economy of scale ensures that Council gains the best possible outcome in terms of minimising the service costs to residents for the provision of the service.

The second reason is that Council will realise five additional years of the environmental benefits associated with a FOGO service, which are reduced leachate and methane gas generation at Singleton’s landfill due to the diversion of organic waste.

Why bother when the composting process will still generate methane and leachate anyway?

The FOGO material collected will be processed by an in-vessel aerobic composting process, meaning it occurs in the presence of oxygen in a sealed chamber or vessel.

This in-vessel composting provides the ideal conditions for aerobic bacteria to thrive by supplying them with food (organic materials), water, and oxygen, which are essential for their breakdown of organic matter, without the generation of methane gas.

The leachate generated during the composting process is collected and can be treated or managed through the use back into the composting process, on-site treatment, or treatment at an off-site wastewater treatment facility.

Why do rural properties have to be included in FOGO, we don’t need it or want it?

The NSW EPA FOGO mandate states that local councils are required to provide all households who receive a red bin waste collection service with a Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) waste service by July 2030. Therefore, Council is required to provide the service to all properties in the Singleton local government area including rural properties.

Why should a rural property pay for a service it won’t use?

Part of ensuring a FOGO service is provided to all households as per the EPA FOGO mandate includes Council having a collection contract or service in place for rural properties. Bin collection contracts allow for a cost per service, and this is payable to the contractor each time the collection is scheduled whether or not the bin is presented for collection.

Why are rural properties paying the same but don’t have the option for a weekly collection?

For the 2025/26 domestic waste management charge of $675, both urban and rural properties will be provided with the same level of service which is a weekly green bin and fortnightly red and yellow bins. Urban properties have the option to increase the red bin collection to weekly for an additional charge of $185. Due to the density of services and the travel distances required in rural areas, it costs more to perform a bin collection to a rural property compared to urban property. Because of this, a weekly red bin option for a rural property would be much higher than the opt-in cost available for an urban property and so this is not available. However, both urban and rural properties have always had the option to add an additional red bin service at their property that is collected on the same time as the normal bin. This option is still available for all properties in 2025/26, which gives rural properties the capability to increase their level of service in regards to bin services in the most cost-effective way.

Why not just have the contract be for each collection undertaken, then rural properties wouldn’t have to pay as they wouldn’t use it?

If a collection contract was structured where Council only pays for collections rendered it would not provide a contractor with any certainty of income level and dramatically increase their financial risk levels. This would result in either the providers not submitting a tender or providing a per service cost that was dramatically higher, which would increase the overall service cost to all properties.

But the EPA website indicates that Councils can get exemptions.

The NSW EPA website does have a section that contains the following:

  • As part of the exemption process some of the things we will consider are:
    • Geographical and population constraints and the impact on processing availability
    • Availability of infrastructure
    • Timing and expiration of waste contracts 
    • Infrastructure impairments of certain building types (i.e. multi-unit dwellings or MUDS) 

While there are properties that are rated as rural land within the Singleton local government area, we are classified as a regional town/city and do not meet these criteria for any possible exemption. This is because based on the geographical location within the Hunter and the size of Singleton, there are no constraints on the availability of processing infrastructure as there are several options for FOGO processing.

Why haven’t I received a caddy?

Properties with a 360L recycle bin service did not receive a caddy in the initial deliveries but will receive one before the FOGO service starts on 30 June. Council has been made aware that in some instances, not all units in a unit block have received a caddy. This is because these blocks do not have a waste service for each unit and have set up a communal bin system where services are shared. Council will provide a cady to the additional units prior to 30 June so that all residents can use the FOGO service. Council will also contact the managing agents of these unit blocks to discuss the bin options they provide to ensure it has the correct bin configuration to account for waste generation volumes.

What if I use all three bins for general waste disposal?

The trucks that collect the green and yellow bins have cameras in the hoppers allowing the drivers to tag any bins that are contaminated within their onboard system. This data will be monitored and properties that are identified as repeat offenders for contaminated bins will have their green and/or yellow bin service suspended and the contractors will not collect the bins after that time.

How will the driver know I have signed up for the weekly red bin?

Prior to the FOGO service starting on 30 June, a sticker will be provided to go onto your red bin to identify the weekly service. Additionally, the contractor’s onboard software will have the address tagged as a weekly collection.

What if I don’t have a green bin?

Council is currently delivering green bins to all rural properties that have not previously had a green bin supplied. Urban properties were delivered a bin in 2017 but if your property currently does not have a green bin and you are the owner, please contact Council to discuss. If you are renting at your property and don’t have a green bin, please contact your real estate agent to discuss.

Why can’t the yellow bin be weekly as my recycling bin is always full, so I have to put recycling into my red bin?

You can upsize your yellow bin to a 360L bin for a one-off charge of $75 for bin supply. After that, your domestic waste service charge remains the same cost as it did with the 240L bin.

Can I get more caddy liners when I run out?

Council will provide an annual delivery of caddy liners to each property. If a property runs out prior to the end of the year, there will be locations where additional liners may be collected. More details on how and where these additional liners can be collected will be communicated following the roll out of the FOGO service on 30 June.

Can I use the liners from the supermarket?

Please use the Council supplied liners only as the credibility of the liners available at the supermarket vary and using an incompatible liner could cause contamination to the compost. The liners rolling out with the caddies are 100% compostable – they comply with the Australian Standard AS 4736-2006. The supplied liners will not be separated from the organic materials or sent to landfill, they will be composted with the food and garden organics collected from residents’ green bins.

Can I use the caddy without the liners?

Yes, you can use the caddy without the liners and put the food waste directly into the green bin.

If I already compost, why do I need the FOGO service?

Home composting and FOGO can work alongside each other as there are a number of items that can go into your FOGO (green) bin that are not recommended for home composting. These items include citrus fruits, odorous foods like onions and garlic, meat, dairy products, greasy foods, bones and seafood.

Is Council introducing FOGO to make money of the compost?

Council delivers the FOGO material to the contractor and pays a per ton fee to the contractor who then composts the FOGO material. Council does not receive any income from the sale of the compost produced from the FOGO process.

Why can’t compostable packaging go in the FOGO bin?

There are numerous packaging materials that are compostable however, they generally contain chemical additives including PFAS, which can be harmful to the environment. FOGO bins are designed for food scraps and garden waste only, and these additives can contaminate the composting process therefore are not allowed. 

Why can’t tea bags go into the FOGO bin?

Some teabags are made from materials containing plastic and use staples to attach the strings and cardboard tabs, so they are best disposed of in the red-lid bin. However, loose leaf tea and coffee grounds can be disposed into the FOGO (green) bin.

Why can’t dog poo go in the FOGO bin?

The composting process does not always kill off pathogens including viruses and intestinal worm eggs, which is why pet poo, pet litter and poo bags cannot be added to FOGO bins.

  • Council received grant funding to supply 240L green bins to all properties when the Garden Organics service commenced in 2017. Singleton Council has received no other funding to implement the FOGO service. 

  •  Rural properties cannot opt-in to the weekly red bin service as the red bin collection for rural properties has always been fortnightly and will remain the same. All properties including rural properties have the option to add additional bins of any colour to their service for an annual charge and these bins are collected on the same day as the other bin of that colour.

  •  Council undertakes regular waste compositional audits. The most recent audit of the red bin showed on average that 25% of red bin contents comprises of food or kitchen waste, and a further 15% comprises of waste material that belongs in the yellow bin for recycling. This means that on average, 40% of the red bin contents for a household will belong in the green or yellow bins once FOGO is introduced.

  •  The provision of an organics service to our rural areas is already in place and there are hundreds of rural properties that currently have a green bin and use the Garden Organics service. Collections from all rural properties will utilise the existing service currently in operation and does not require any additional resources to be added.

  •  Rural properties cannot opt-out of receiving a green bin but may choose not to put the bin out for collection.

  •  A number of residents have pointed out a section on the EPA website that there will be the possibility of exemptions for rural properties. This section is copied from the website as follows:

    Exemptions are intended to be predominately proactive where the EPA considers them necessary to limit the number of organisations needing to approach the EPA. We recognise that while we want all businesses and councils to meet the mandates, in some situations there may be more time needed e.g. when a waste contract runs beyond 2030.

    The EPA will develop an exemption framework to guide decision making.  As part of the exemption process some of the things we will consider are;

    1. Geographical and population constraints and the impact on processing availability
    2. Availability of infrastructure
    3. Timing and expiration of waste contracts
    4. Infrastructure impairments of certain building types like (multi-unit dwellings or MUDS)

    One of the guiding principles is that we do not wish to punish anyone where access to a FOGO service is limited or cost prohibitive.

    However, due to Singleton’s geographical location being close to processing infrastructure, facilities and major transport routes, we would not meet the criteria and therefore not eligible for the NSW EPA’s FOGO exemptions for our rural properties. These exemptions are aimed at isolated councils that would either collect very small amounts of FOGO over a large geographical area or must travel hundreds of kilometres to get the material to a processing facility, which is not the case for Singleton.

     Due to Singleton’s geographical location, Council does not have constraints around accessing infrastructure, processing facilities or large travel distances to these facilities and is therefore would not be eligible for the NSW EPA’s FOGO exemptions for rural properties.

  • Under Section 496 of the Local Government Act 1993, Councils are to levy an annual charge for the provision of domestic waste management services to each property for which the service is available. This charge is limited to the cost of providing the service to that property and Council does not generate a surplus from providing waste services to the properties in the Singleton Local Government Area. In addition, no revenue generated from the domestic waste service charge can be spent on any Council function other than the provision of waste services.

  • Your green lid bin will be the home for all your food and organic waste, which is why it is moving to a weekly collection from 30 June 2025. A weekly green bin collection improves convenience, maximises food waste recovery, and reduces odour issues. Additionally, a weekly organics collection for residents is required under the NSW Government’s FOGO mandates.

  • All food waste goes into your green FOGO bin including raw or cooked meats, bones, fish, bread, cheese, out of date food and seafood scraps.

  •  In Singleton, 25% of red bin contents comprises of food or kitchen waste that once FOGO is introduced, will go into the green bin. With the removal of food organics from the red bin, Council resolved to default to a fortnightly red bin collection for both urban and rural residents but with an option for urban residents and businesses to opt-in for a weekly service at an additional cost. The fortnightly red bin collection provides a base service to all properties, and the option for urban properties to increase their red bin collection to weekly ensures all household structures, from individuals through to large families or multiple people living on one property, are able to receive a service suited to their requirements.

  •  After the NSW Government introduced legislation mandating councils to collect and transport food and garden organics waste (FOGO) by 2030, Council developed a long-term Waste Management Strategy and Action Plan focused on providing a whole of LGA approach to provide a waste service that is reliable, sustainable and cost effective. The Strategy included a recommendation to implement the FOGO service to meet the State Government’s target.

  •  The introduction of the FOGO service is occurring now ahead of the mandated deadline of 1 July 2030 for two main reasons. By implementing now, an additional five years of the environmental benefits of reduced waste to landfill as well as the reduction in methane gas and leachate will be achieved. Also, Singleton Council has joint contracts in place with Maitland and Cessnock councils for the processing and collection of organics. Council is introducing FOGO in line with our neighbouring councils to make the rollout more efficient and financially viable.

  •  Residents will receive a 7L benchtop caddy and a roll of 150 compostable liners in June 2025 as part of the FOGO introduction. Based on discussions with other Councils that have implemented FOGO 150 liners annually will be sufficient for a majority of properties. However, Council will have a process in place for households to receive more liners if required. Initially, replacement liners will be made available for free, and Council will reassess this process after 12 months.

  •  Our FOGO will be processed via an enclosed system that composts the FOGO material via aerobic processes. This process does not produce methane, and any leachate generation is captured and treated on site at the processing facility. 

  • Urban households can opt-in to a weekly red bin collection. Council’s proposed annual domestic waste service charge for 2025/2026 is $675. Opting in for a weekly red bin collection would increase that amount by $185, to $860 per year.

  • The move to a fortnightly red bin collection was the most cost-effective of four scenarios presented to Council’s February meeting.

  • Singleton Council has a joint contract in place with Maitland Cessnock councils for the processing and collection of organic materials. All three councils will introduce the FOGO service from 30 June 2025 to make the new services as simple as possible for residents on the border with other LGAs.

  • All households will receive a bench-top caddy and liners in June to help make collecting food waste easy—simply put your food scraps in the caddy, tie off the supplied liner and put it in your green bin for kerbside collection.

  • Under NSW Government legislation, all properties in NSW—both urban and rural—must have a FOGO service.

  • There is no other legislation related to potential changes in waste collections that Council is aware of at this stage.
  • Under Section 496 of the Local Government Act 1993, Councils are to levy an annual charge for the provision of domestic waste management services to each property for which the service is available. This charge is limited to the cost of providing the service to that property and Council does not generate a surplus from providing waste services to the properties in the Singleton Local Government Area.
  • The current waste service delivers one weekly collection (red bin) and two fortnightly collections (yellow bin and green bin). The introduction of FOGO maintains the same level of service, swapping the frequencies of the red bin and green bin collections. Opting in to a weekly red bin collection increases the level of service to that property to include two weekly collections (red bin and green bin) and one fortnightly (yellow bin) service, this increase in service level is the reason for the increased cost associated with the option of maintaining the weekly red bin.

  • Four options for the collection frequency of the red lid bin were presented to Council at the 18 February 2025 meeting with differing levels of service and associated costs as follows:

Option 1: Fortnightly bin for both urban and rural properties with no weekly option.

Option 2: Rural properties maintain a fortnightly service and all urban properties have a weekly service with no fortnightly option.

Option 3: Rural properties maintain a fortnightly service and all urban residents receive a weekly service with the option of a fortnightly service at a reduced cost. Note: This option decreases the potential overall waste generation which slightly lowers the cost of the weekly service compared to option 2.

Option 4: Rural properties maintain a fortnightly service and all urban residents receive a fortnightly service with the option of a weekly service at an increased cost to the annual domestic waste service charge. Note: This option decreases the potential overall waste generation more than option 3, which slightly lowers the cost of the fortnightly service compared to option 2 and 3, however the cost of the weekly service is the highest in this option as a smaller amount of services will be responsible for the increased waste volume associated with a weekly service compared to a fortnightly service.

  • Within the calculation of the proposed domestic waste service charge for 2025/2026, each option is based on the potential volume of waste generated through the kerbside collection of all three bins. The annual domestic waste service charge also includes the cost of delivering the annual bulk waste collection and trailer vouchers.

  • All households will receive a 7L bench-top caddy and a roll of 150 compostable liners in June 2025, with an additional role of liners will then be provided to all households on an annual basis.

  • Council will pay a tonnage fee to dispose of the food and garden organics waste that we collect to a contractor who then composts the material. Council is not involved in the compost process and there is no revenue generated for Council through the sale of the compost.

  • The FOGO service will deliver environmental benefits through a lesser generation of leachate and methane gas, as well as cost savings from the waste levy with a reduced volume of waste going to landfill. This cost saving from reduced levy payments is included in the calculation of the annual domestic waste service charge.

  • All urban residents should have received a green bin in the roll out in 2017. If you don't have a green bin at your place, please contact Council on T 02 6578 7290.

More FOGO information

For more information about the FOGO service and your green organics bin, or to find your next collection day, visit:

Your Organics Bin