Find out what food and garden organic materials can be put in your green-lid bin.
Yarra City Council is introducing a new kerbside waste stream in 2024. Residents and organisations that receive a kerbside waste collection service from Council will receive a new 120 litre lime green-lidded bin that will collect food and garden organic (FOGO) materials.
Residents will receive their new bin sometime between April and the end of June 2024. The first collections for your FOGO bin will not commence until 1 July 2024.
This new FOGO collection service will provide our community with a new avenue to reduce waste and recycle more materials.
How often will the FOGO bin be collected?
This FOGO kerbside collection service will be added in all suburbs (other than the alternative collection area) without changing the existing waste collection service for rubbish, recycling and glass. The collection frequency for the municipality (other than the alternative collection area) will be:
- weekly FOGO and rubbish
- fortnightly glass and recycling.
Waste collection in the Abbotsford trial area, where a FOGO service is currently in place, will remain unchanged:
- weekly FOGO
- fortnightly glass, rubbish and recycling.
What if I need a larger FOGO bin?
We offer a limited number of 240 litre bins for residents located within leafy suburbs where the bins will mainly be used for garden waste.
Communal FOGO community hubs
You can recycle your FOGO materials at our communal community hubs, located at the Clifton Hill Depot, Burnley Depot and Burnley Golf Course.
More community hub locations will be added as we identify more areas.
What can/cannot go to in the FOGO bin?
The introduction of a new waste service means that our habits need to change. Many materials that previously went into the rubbish stream can now be recycled in your FOGO bin. Council will ensure that you receive reference materials to guide you in the transition.
The following items can go in your FOGO bin:
- Fruit and vegetable scraps
- Bread, cereal and baked goods
- Meat, seafood. Uncooked bones and eggs
- Looseleaf tea and coffee grounds
- Leftovers
- Dairy products, including Yoghurt
- Rice, Pasta and Beans
- Citrus, Onion and Garlic
- Leaves, Plants, Twigs, Grass and Weeds
- Grass and Lawn clippings
- Small branches and logs (up to 10cm in diameter and 40cm in length)
- Newspaper and paper towel
- Human and Animal hair/fur
The following items cannot go in your FOGO bin:
- Products labelled compostable or bio-degradable products (including bags)
- Plastic bags
- Tea bags and Coffee pods
- Pet faeces, animal remains and litter tray contents
- Bamboo, treated wood or wooden utensils
- Large branches (unless pruned and cut up to less than 40cm in length and 10cm in diameter)
- Paper and Paper bags, such as paper shopping bags from major supermarket chains
- Any item that goes in your recycling or glass bin
- Wet Wipes
- Nappies
- Liquids and cooking oil
What happens to the materials collected in the FOGO bin?
Council will collect the materials in your lime green-lidded FOGO bin and transport this valuable resource to our processor RepurposeIT’s facility in Epping to be turned into compost. The compost will primarily be used on farms to grow fresh local food, as well as in parks and gardens.
By recovering this valuable material, we can ensure that it is reused and continues to provide value to our community. It’s only waste if it’s wasted!
How do I best use this service?
There are three steps you can keep in mind if you want to minimise the amount of food waste you produce at home:
- Food Waste Avoidance – Reduce the amount of food you throw away by being intentional with your purchasing habits. Learn more about how to avoid food waste at home.
- Composting/worm farming – Take advantage of Yarra’s Partnership with Compost Revolution and purchase a subsidised compost bin/worm farm to recycle your food waste at home.
- Use your FOGO bin – Place your remaining food and garden organic materials in your FOGO bin for collection.
The new food and garden organics (FOGO) bin will be a standard size of 120 litres for all households and dwelling types.
Yes, if your business does not produce domestic food or garden organic waste, for example food scraps from a staff lunchroom and garden, tree or plant waste. Commercial properties can opt out of receiving waste collection services from Council. Please note that if you choose to opt out of receiving a FOGO bin, you will not receive a reduction in your kerbside waste rate.
Commercial properties who wish to opt out of receiving a FOGO bin and service should lodge a bin retrieval request by clicking here or contact Council.
If you need assistance to fit an additional bin on your property you can contact us to discuss your situation and we will try to find a solution. Customers should lodge a request online as 'Report an unwanted bin for retrieval' by clicking here.
If you would like to opt-out of having a FOGO bin on your property, please contact us at info@yarracity.vic.gov.au to discuss your situation and your alternative plans for food waste disposal.
Yes! We encourage you to reduce all avoidable food waste. For tips and tricks join our 'Food Waste Challenge’ and continue with your own composting/worm farming. Only use the food and garden organics bin for items which aren't recommended for home composting such as meat, citrus peel, and dairy.
All bins will be delivered by 30 June. If you have not received your bin by 21 June, please send a request by clicking here or contact Council.
FOGO bins will be delivered to properties that receive a Council kerbside collection service between 1 April and 30 June 2024, the bins will feature a sticker with the property address. Collections will not commence until 1 July 2024.
You will receive a letter in your letterbox explaining the service, how it works and what items can and cannot be placed into your new FOGO bin. We encourage you to hold onto this information so that you can reference it in future.
If you would like to be provided a hardcopy or digital copy of the brochure and letter from Yarra's Mayor, you can pick up a copy from our service sites.
Once your bin has been delivered, store it on your property. Please don't commence using it until the last week of June. FOGO collections commence from 1 July so food waste placed into the bin in May or early June could become unpleasant.
From 1 July Yarra’s green waste service will be replaced by the introduction of Council’s food and garden organics (FOGO) collection service. If you have previously purchased a large lime green-lidded bin for your green waste collections from Council, this will automatically become your FOGO bin.
Unlike the current green waste collection guidelines, from 1 July all materials for collection must fit inside your FOGO bin with the lid closed. We will not collect bundled branches or any other green waste items placed next to or on top of your FOGO bin.
The cost of providing all kerbside waste collection services is included in the Kerbside Waste Rate listed on your annual rates notice.
While the kerbside waste rate is expected to increase in the first year due to the cost of introducing the service, over the long-term Council will work hard towards diverting material from landfill which hopefully will reduce costs for everyone.
No, we will not be providing a kitchen caddy. We recommend re-using household items that work for your kitchen space and capacity, such as ice-cream, yoghurt or Tupperware containers.
As part of Yarra’s Circular Economy Strategy, we are committed to minimising waste at all stages of a product’s lifecycle. By opting out from providing kitchen caddies to our community, we avoid generating additional waste produced during the manufacturing and disposal of these caddies. We are encouraging our residents to repurpose items they already have around the house that would otherwise be sent to landfill or recycled.
Compostable liners are not accepted in the food and garden organics bin. There are better outcomes for keeping food and garden organic (FOGO) materials in circulation when these bags are not used. Reasons are as follows:
- There are many different types of ‘compostable’ bags on the market. It is difficult for consumers and for staff on the sorting line to identify 'compostable' bags from non-compostable ones.
- The bags remain intact on the sorting line, and may conceal contamination, which compromises the end-product – mulch and compost.
- Different bags break down at different rates, which can disrupt the processing of the material inside.
- If a knot is tied in the bag, the knot will take a long time to break down – sometimes more than a year.
For apartment buildings with a council waste service, we will deliver an allocation of bins for all residents to share.
If you have a private service, you will not receive a Yarra FOGO bin. If you do not have a private FOGO service, we encourage you to contact your owners’ corporation or building managers to explore options for a private FOGO service.
Alternatively, some community gardens and neighbourhood houses invite residents to drop off food waste for community composting. Yarra residents can also drop off food waste to our Clifton Hill Recycling Centre from 1 July 2024.
Before your FOGO bin is emptied on collection day, our staff will do a visual check of the contents of each bin. If there are non-accepted materials in your bin, it's deemed as contaminated and will not be emptied.
We will place a sticker on your bin to explain why it was not emptied and identify what you need to remove before collection can take place. The sticker also has instructions on how to request collection after the bin is decontaminated.
Businesses with Council bin(s) will receive a FOGO bin as part of the community-wide FOGO rollout. However, this is a domestic service and should only be used for staff lunchroom waste, not for commercial food waste.
When the lid of your FOGO is completely closed it should not attract pests or produce any significant smell. You can also also:
- layer your food with green waste, newspaper or paper towel
- put meat and seafood in the freezer until the night before collection
- sprinkle contents with baking soda
- rinse your bin with natural detergent after collection.