FOGO stands for Food Organics Garden Organics.

Residents will be able to place their food waste into their existing lime-green lidded bin, which will now be their FOGO bin. The FOGO bin will reduce the amount of waste the Town sends to landfill or energy recovery.

The contents from the FOGO bin will be turned into high-quality compost. This will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have a positive impact on our environment.

Under the State Government’s Waste Strategy, all metropolitan councils will need to introduce the new three-bin FOGO system by 2025.

Moving to a three-bin FOGO system has many benefits for our environment, including:

Reduction in landfill: Transitioning to FOGO removes all food waste from the red-lidded general waste bin and keeps it out of landfill. The WA State Government has set a target for 70% of waste to be diverted from landfill by 2025 and FOGO will help us all to meet this target.

Using organic waste: Organic waste is a problem in landfill as it produces methane, a harmful greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Turning organic waste into compost will reduce the impact on the environment and return valuable nutrients to the soil.

Households going FOGO will maintain a three-bin system, but the GO bin will become a FOGO bin.

This transition allows you to add food scraps and garden vegetation to your lime-green lidded bin. Participating households will also receive a kitchen caddy and a supply of certified compostable liners to hold food scraps until they are tipped into the FOGO bin.

Your lime green-lidded FOGO bin will be collected weekly.

Your red-lidded general waste bin and yellow-lidded recycling bin will be collected fortnightly on alternating weeks.

GO stands for Garden Organics, while FOGO stands for Food Organics Garden Organics.

GO bins are only used for lawn clippings and garden vegetation. These materials are currently mulched and available to residents for free from the West Metro Recycling Centre.

FOGO bins can accept garden organics, as well as food scraps. These materials combined will be taken to a FOGO processing location to be composted into Australian Certified compost.

Free mulch will still be available to residents of WMRC Member Councils.

We encourage all residents to give the new system a go. Approximately 50% of the average general waste bin is made up of organics which will now be placed in your FOGO bin instead. If you are sorting items in to your recycling and FOGO bins there should be very little going in to your general waste bin.

The Town recognises that there will be some households that will not be able to manage with a single 120L general waste bin collected fortnightly and have a genuine need for a larger bin. In this instance residents will be able to apply to upgrade their general waste bin to 240L (collected fortnightly) at no extra charge. This process is still being finalised by the Town and will not be available until after the FOGO service has commenced.

As the name suggests, all food and garden organics can go in the lime green-lidded FOGO bin.

All food organics including:

• Vegetable and fruit scraps
• Meat and bones
• Seafood
• Eggshells
• Teabags and coffee grinds
• Dairy products
• Take away food (no containers)
• Any food that has expired or is mouldy

Garden waste: 

• Grass clippings
• Pruning, cuttings, trimmings
• Twigs and sticks
• Palm fronds
• Weeds

It is important that you continue to only put garden organics in your lime green-lidded GO bin until FOGO is officially rolled out.

Approximately 3000 households in the Town will be moving to a 3-bin FOGO system in August 2023. These are single-unit dwellings with an inidvidual set of bins each (not shared).

Multiple-unit dwellings with shared bins (e.g. apartments) and retirement villages will progressively receive FOGO from 2024.

Businesses/commercial will not receive FOGO at this stage. The Town may look to provide a FOGO service to these properties in the future.

Initially, the FOGO service will only be available properties without shared bins. Best practice guidelines for introducing FOGO suggest a multi-stage process, whereby FOGO is implemented in single unit dwellings first (eg. houses) so that lessons learnt can be applied to multi-unit dwellings (eg. apartments).

No, the general bin will be collected fortnightly and the FOGO bin weekly.

To reduce odours and insects please refer to the following list:
• Be sure to put your FOGO bin out every week, even if it’s not full.
• Don’t overfill your compostable caddy bags, to prevent breakage. Tie them off tightly. Keep caddy lid closed tightly.
• Wrap and place any odorous food scraps (seafood, meat etc.) in the freezer until collection day.
• Any food contaminated cardboard/paper e.g. pizza boxes, paper kitchen towel, tissues, shredded paper can all go in the FOGO bin and will help absorb moisture. (Remove all plastic and packaging tape from cardboard)
• Layering newspaper or green waste at the bottom of the bin can help absorb liquids and prevent waste sticking to the inside of the bin.
• If possible, allow lawn clippings and garden cuttings to dry out to prevent moisture build up.
• Keep your bins in the shade with the bin lids tightly closed.
• Sprinkle baking soda, kitty litter, vinegar, oil of cloves or lemon juice in the bin after empty to reduce odours.
• Clean your bin after emptying with soapy water.

The kitchen caddy is a 7 litre handy bin designed to be used in your kitchen, on the counter or in a cupboard. The caddy can be used to collect food scraps in the kitchen, such as, food leftovers/scraps including bones, out of date food (not the packaging!), tea leaves and coffee grounds.
Compostable liners can be placed inside your caddy . Newspaper, paper junk mail or no liner can also be used. Every 2-4 days the caddy liner can be tied off and placed into your FOGO bin. Wipe out or wash your caddy regularly.
Make sure you only use compostable bin liners in this caddy, never plastic bags as these will contaminate the compost. Store your unused compostable liners in a cool dry place to avoid them breaking down.
If you purchase additional liners, please ensure they are certified compostable and display this symbol: See FOGO on Town website.

No, you do not need to use compostable liners to line your kitchen caddy. You can use newspaper or put food scraps straight into the caddy. If you do use bags, they must be compostable and display the certified compostable symbol. NEVER put plastic bags or biodegradable bags into the FOGO bin.

The bin sizes the Town will be using are based on the Waste Authority’s Better Practice FOGO Kerbside Collection Guidelines. These Guidelines, which include source-separated FOGO, comprise the following bin infrastructure and collection frequencies:

General waste: 140 litres per fortnight
Co-mingled recycling: no less than 240 litres per fortnight
FOGO: preference – 240 litres per week
The collection volume for each service is important to maximise recovery and minimise general waste.

The Town of Mosman Park has entered into a funding agreement with the State Governments Better Bins Plus system and is therefore required to implement kerbside services consistent with these guidelines.

From supermarkets or Bunnings. Please ensure you purchase liners/bags with the certified compostable symbol.

From supermarkets or Bunnings. Please ensure you purchase liners/bags with the certified compostable symbol.

The FOGO bin will belong to your property not you.
The FOGO bin can complement your compost bin/worm farm, as it can take the things that they can’t – like , meat, bones and dairy products and larger prunings.

Yes, the product is available for residents to buy through the West Metro Recycling Centre for $5.50 each (25 Litre bags)

The Town may look to roll out FOGO to businesses in the future. At this stage your collections will remain the same.

Email admin@mosmanpark.wa.gov.au. The Town will organise with it’s waste contractor for your kitchen caddy to be delivered when you return.