FOGO compost now at more tips

30 November 2018

In the wake of the positive community response to the new FOGO bin collection service, Bega Valley Shire Council has expanded distribution of its high quality compost from two tips to four.

The compost that Council produces from green bins, which now includes food waste, is now available at Wallagoot, Bermagui, Eden and Merimbula for $31 per cubic metre.

Waste Services Coordinator and FOGO project manager Joley Vidau, says the expanded distribution is made possible by the increased availability of the compost since people started adding food organics to their green bins last month.

“We are rapt to have this compost available at the four tips and to also have more of this valuable resource for our community,” she said.

Council introduced FOGO to more than 12,000 households on October 29. More than 40 Councils in NSW are using FOGO to keep food out of landfill and produce high quality compost for sporting fields, parks, public spaces and people’s gardens.

The biggest risk to FOGO is contamination but in the first week the green bins had a one percent contamination rate. This dropped to 0.8 percent in the second week and 0.6 percent in week three.

“Some councils have up to 80 per cent contamination rates when they first introduce FOGO so we are over the moon that our community has embraced the new service so well,” Joley said.

FOGO is part of Council’s 10-year Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy ‘Recycling the future’ which aims to reduce valuable resources going into landfill.

Photograph: Mayor Cr Kristy McBain purchasing a load of compost for her garden.

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