As Manningham Council gets ready to launch its Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) service in July 2023, Councillors last week got to see how Manningham’s food and garden waste will be processed.

The FOGO service will allow residents to place household food waste into their green lid garden bin to be recycled into compost for use in gardens and farms across Victoria. 

Council’s organic waste processing contractor, Bio Gro, will receive the food and garden waste from kerbside FOGO collection and turn it into compost.

Last week some of Manningham’s Councillors toured Bio Gro’s organic waste facility in Dandenong South to see the process first-hand.

After seeing the process, Manningham Mayor Cr Michelle Kleinert said that FOGO is 
one of the most effective and achievable ways we can all reduce our impact on our environment.

“By having household food and garden waste collected and processed, it can be recycled into compost which can be used to enrich our soil. 

“If you can eat it or grow it – you will be able to put it in your FOGO bin. On the tour, we saw first-hand how problematic it is when plastics bags are placed into our garden bins and how it contaminates the composting process. 

“Removing food waste from Manningham’s red lid garbage bin is set to divert up to 20,000 tonnes of waste from landfills per year,” Cr Kleinert said. 

From 3 July 2023, Manningham’s green lid FOGO bins will be collected weekly and red lid garbage bin will be collected fortnightly.

“Over the coming months we look forward to getting out and about and speaking with residents about the benefits of FOGO in the lead up to the service starting in July 2023,” Cr Kleinert said.

All residents with a Council residential waste service will receive a free kitchen caddy for their food waste along with supply of compostable liners, as part of the implementation of this new service.

For more information on FOGO, visit manningham.vic.gov.au/FOGO