More councils to recycle food and garden waste
The second round of the NSW Government’s Go FOGO grants is now open for councils to establish food organics and garden organics or ‘FOGO’ recycling services for households across the state.
Successful grant recipients will join 56 council areas in NSW who already provide or are preparing to provide a FOGO collection service to their residents.
NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Director of Major Programs Kathy Giunta said it’s estimated that the program will establish FOGO recycling for two million households in NSW by 2027.
“Food waste makes up almost half of the contents of our red lid bins and can generate millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year when it breaks down in landfill,” Ms Giunta said.
“These grants will allow more households in NSW to start recycling their nutrient-rich organic waste into high quality commercial compost that can be used to enrich soils in our local parks, sporting fields or in agriculture.”
“Councils can use the funding as needed to prepare their new waste service, including purchasing bins and caddies, rolling out community education and completing waste audits to ensure a successful FOGO service.”
The grants are available as part of a $69 million commitment under the NSW Government’s Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy to halve the amount of organics waste sent to landfill in NSW by 2030.
Households with the service will be provided with educational resources, kitchen caddies and a green bin to place their food and garden scraps in for weekly collection at the kerbside.
Round 1 was awarded in January 2023, allocating $6.2 million to 14 councils including metropolitan areas like the Inner West and Cumberland as well as six councils in the Riverina region.
Round 2 applications are open to councils until Tuesday, 10 October 2023.
More details are available on the EPA website: https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/gofogogrants.
Quotes attributable to Minister for the Environment, Penny Sharpe:
“Recycling our food waste is an effective way to help meet our climate change targets, because every tonne of organic waste that is diverted from landfill saves 1.5 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
“Going FOGO is a win for waste reduction, emission reduction and the environment.”