Ever wondered what happens to the contents of your FOGO (Food Organics Garden Organics) bin once it’s collected from your verge?

FOGO from the WMRC’s member councils on the FOGO system (The Town of Cottesloe, City of Subiaco and Town of Mosman Park) is processed by GO Organics. We visited their facility just north of Gingin to find out how it goes from food scraps and garden waste to high-quality, Australian-certified compost.

First, FOGO is transported to the West Metro Recycling Centre from your verge, where it’s compressed into a larger truck to make the journey to Gingin. At the Gingin facility, pre-processing begins with the manual removal of any contamination, and the shredding of larger pieces of garden organics like branches and prunings.

Then the material is moved into piles on a hardstand (an engineered barrier to stop the composting process affecting groundwater), where – with inputs of air and water – it breaks down naturally over a period of twelve weeks.

Before it can be used on our gardens and parks, other materials need to be added to create a beneficial product for healthy plants. The finished compost contains about 20% FOGO waste, with the remainder being made up of natural minerals and agricultural waste. Once the right mix of ingredients is achieved, it’s ready to be bagged and sold!

FOGO is a great example of the circular economy in action. By putting food scraps and garden waste in your FOGO bin (without contamination like plastics), you’re helping to return valuable natural materials to our soils. Without FOGO, these materials would be sent to landfill, where they become unusable while also producing greenhouse gases as they break down. Creating compost out of waste (instead of virgin materials) just makes sense.

To keep the circle going, why not buy yourself a bag of FOGO-derived compost next time you’re at the West Metro Recycling Centre?

The Town of Cottesloe, City of Subiaco and Town of Mosman Park have already adopted the three bin FOGO system, and residents are doing a great job getting their organic waste into FOGO and out of general waste with minimal contamination. The Town of Claremont and Shire of Peppermint Grove are expected to transition to FOGO in early 2025.