City of Parramatta to drastically cut amount of food waste in landfill

City of Parramatta Council is inviting residents to have their say on the future of waste collection as it aims to reduce the amount of food and garden waste that goes to landfill.

The NSW Government is requiring all households across NSW to have a food collection service before 2030. The new Food and Garden Organics (FOGO) Collection Service will mean food waste – such as meat, bones, bread, vegetables, dairy, eggshells, tea leaves and coffee grinds – can be placed in the green-lidded organics bin with garden clippings and collected weekly.

Residents are invited to provide feedback on the preferred size and collection frequency of their red-lidded garbage bins via a short online survey.  

“Council has an adopted target to divert 85 per cent of our waste from landfill by 2038,” City of Parramatta CEO Brett Newman said.

“Given that food waste currently makes up to 50 per cent of what goes into our red-lidded garbage bins, this change in our collection service will make a positive impact both environmentally and economically.

“Not only does composting food waste help improve the soil of farms, gardens, parks and sports fields, but by diverting it from landfill, we are also saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the same time,” said Mr Newman.

For more information, and to have your say, visit participate.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/fogo

Submissions close at 5pm on Friday 28 January 2022.