SEEKING GREEN BINS: WHY DO SOME COUNCILS OFFER FOGO WASTE COLLECTION WHILE OTHERS DON’T?

by Stephanie Nestor, Assistant Editor, Council Magazine

Bayside City Council resident using their new FOGO bin. Image: Bayside City Council.

In the National Waste Policy Action Plan 2019, the Federal Government committed to halving the amount of organic waste sent to landfill nationwide by 2030, and ordered councils to deliver a food waste collection service by 2023 – with only 30 per cent of Australians currently having access to these services. As these dates creep closer, councils will need to find ways to collaborate to overcome the challenges and reach national targets.

Food waste is becoming an increasingly important issue as landfills begin to reach capacity, with greenhouse gas emissions able to be minimised and sustainable waste systems created by diverting food waste from landfill and reusing it.

As part of the national plan, all state, territory and local governments are expected to deliver Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection services to households and businesses by 2023, with assistance from the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA).

This rollout of FOGO waste collection programs will coincide with the introduction of bin harmonisation and consistent standards for states and territories.

For many states and territories, this means at least a three-bin system – for rubbish, recyclables, and FOGO – but some will roll out four-bin systems, which will have an extra bin for glass.

While this target cements the importance of creating sustainable waste management practices, during these early years of the transition, there are still challenges to overcome.

WHY DO WE NEED TO RECYCLE FOGO?

One third of the world’s food is wasted and ends up in landfill, producing eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the National Food Waste Strategy Feasibility Study by Food Innovation Australia, food waste is a significant problem which costs the Australian economy $36.6 billion a year.

Each year, 7.6 million tonnes of food is wasted, which makes up 42 per cent of waste going to landfill.

Recovered food and garden waste can be used again as compost, mulch, and soil conditioners, or used to produce renewable biogas using a digester system.

So with only 30 per cent of Australian households already having a FOGO service through their local government, what challenges are councils facing and why is this rollout taking so long?

CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTATION

Many councils have struggled to implement FOGO collection for their communities with the lack of a clear guide, and the obligation of meeting the national waste target by 2023 adding extra pressure.

Major cities such as Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra have already begun pilot programs for a selection of residents, in an attempt to reduce food ending up in landfill.

The City of Melbourne has rolled out its FOGO program to over 20,000 residents in houses and low-rise apartment buildings, but have not worked out a way to offer the program to residents in high-rise buildings.

Other Victorian councils, such as the City of Port Phillip, Maroondah City Council and Manningham City Council, have struggled to introduce a food waste collection program because of a lack of processing capacity at recycling facilities in Victoria.

Even if there is capacity, recycling and composting facilities have to deal with contaminated food and garden waste which cannot be recycled. Some facilities have also struggled to sell the recycled compost they produce from food and garden waste.

In the City of Monash, located in south-east Melbourne, residents have been reluctant to take part in the program, raising concerns in community feedback submissions about food waste creating odours and encouraging pests to go through green bins.

Despite these concerns, many councils have found ways to overcome challenges regarding how to offer services to high-rise buildings, recycling infrastructure, contamination of material, and community engagement.

NAVIGATING ACCESS FOR APARTMENTS

While many councils have struggled to implement FOGO services for apartments, due to accessibility issues for bins and collection, getting residents and councils of owners on board, and dealing with the smell, some councils have found ways to accommodate multi-unit developments.

The City of Fremantle has devised a tailored approach to ensure residents in high-rise buildings can still benefit from its food and garden waste program.

The FOGO program in the City of Fremantle isn’t mandated; instead, in each residential or commercial building there is a person who volunteers as a ‘waste champion’ to liaison with council to introduce FOGO bin collection services.

City of Fremantle Waste Minimisation Officer, Kelly Levisohn, works with these champions to conduct bin assessments – what size bins the dwelling has, where the bins are stored and how they’re placed out for collection – to see what extra support is needed.

This process can take anywhere from a week to a few months, depending if residents are ready to take up the service or if they need to send the matter to the council of owners for approval.

Ms Levisohn said some more difficult implementations for multi-unit developments can take six to twelve months as the make-up of buildings can have an effect on uptake.

“There may be some buildings that we just physically can't provide the service for,” Ms Levisohn said.

“The larger the complex, the more they tend to take a long time to work with. Several residents or tenants may have contacted us because they want FOGO, but it is dependent on their council of owners and whether they're active or not.”

Ms Levisohn said the tailoredapproach had to be holistic and have everyone on board in order to work, including residents, tenants, the council of owners, and maintenance people.

“That's a benefit of working with people and giving them very simple information on how it will look like, because sometimes they may be reluctant to switch over because they just don't know,” Ms Levisohn said.

“That may be where other councils get some pushback, because residents are being made to do it.”

RECYCLING FACILITIES DIVERTING WASTE

Many councils have worked with recycling and composting facilities to ensure organic waste is actually being repurposed, with diversion rates steadily increasing.

Randwick City Council in New South Wales made its FOGO waste collection service available to all of its 156,000 residents in March 2021.

A year after the program began, Randwick City Council has seen a 97 per cent increase in FOGO collection and a 26 per cent decrease in rubbish collection.

Randwick City Council Mayor, Dylan Parker, said the results of just one year of offering the service have been impressive.

“Over the past year we have collected 14,000 tonnes of food and garden waste and turned it into compost. That’s around twice the weight of steel used in the Anzac Bridge,” Mayor Parker said.

“Crucially, by not sending this waste to landfill we have prevented the creation of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.”

Additionally, since introducing its FOGO service in July 2019, Bayside City Council in Victoria has increased its diversion rate to 60 per cent and processes over 14,000 tonnes of food and garden waste a year.

All FOGO waste is processed at Sacyr Environment Australia’s organics facility, in Dandenong South.

The waste is turned into compost using an in-vessel treatment that processes organic material in tunnels, which can be monitored for temperature, moisture, and oxygen levels. The whole process takes around 42 days and once the compost is ready, it is sent to end markets to be used as soil conditioner or in landscaping.

Currently, Bayside City Council is considering implementing the use of the compost in its parks and gardens, but the compost is not available to the general public.

EDUCATING THE COMMUNITY

Many councils would agree that the key to a successful FOGO waste collection rollout is educating the community about how to dispose of their waste and why it is important.

The Shire of Augusta Margaret River in Western Australia introduced a three-bin waste system in 2019 and now redirects 59 per cent of its waste to recycling.

Prior to the introduction of the FOGO collection program, the landfill diversion rate for the Shire was only 22 per cent.

The Shire owes its success to community engagement, since residents ensured minimal contamination of food and garden waste collected for recycling with a contamination rate of only 1.4 per cent.

Workshops were offered to residents throughout 2021-22 to give the community information about how to recycle and compost their waste.

Showcasing how education programs are very effective for combating the contamination of organic waste that ends up at composting facilities.

For Bayside City Council, Sacyr’s comprehensive decontamination practices can only do so much if residents aren’t putting the right waste in the right bins.

This is why, as part of the program rollout in 2019, Bayside City Council ran a campaign to inform residents about FOGO waste and recycling through direct mail, workshops, information stands, social media posts, and advertising in print and digital media.

Bayside City Council CEO, Mick Cummins, said, “Any Councils yet to implement the service should ensure they bring their community along the journey, emphasising the why and rationale behind the decision and highlighting the landfill diversion target that they are working towards as a community.

“The storytelling behind the food waste recovery process is also a critical component of this service change, as it provides the community with an understanding and certainty behind their resources being put to good use.”

Similarly, the City of Fremantle has learned that it’s important to not only give out information through workshops and flyers, but also to show residents where their waste ends up.

Organic waste in the City of Fremantle is turned into recycled compost which the public is able to purchase from the Fremantle Recycling Centre. Each 25L bag costs $5, with a limit of five bags per customer, and contains at most 30 per cent FOGO-derived material.

Some bags are even donated to multi-unit developments and schools for their gardens.

“Our residents love the fact that their food waste is actually being turned into something. It's something tangible that they can see and they love that it's closing the loop on waste,” Ms Levisohn said.

“Now that they’ve got these products, they're less likely to contaminate their bin because they know it's actually being turned into something.”

COUNCILS LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER

As 2030 draws closer, councils will not only need to work with their communities to reach individual waste diversion targets, but also with fellow councils.

Ms Levisohn said the key to the City of Fremantle’s program’s success has been sharing information with neighbouring councils.

“By speaking to other local governments that have been through the process, you can learn from their mistakes and their wins,” Ms Levisohn said.

“We are a member of the Resource Recovery Group with the Town of East Fremantle and City of Melville. We have had the benefit of working together to roll this out.

“Don't be afraid to ask for information, because the more information you have for your residents, the easier it is to get them over the line.”

Meeting the objectives of the national waste plan and creating a sustainable waste system will take more than just setting targets – it’ll involve active community engagement and the sharing of information between councils.

While some councils have been learning these past few years with their programs, some are just beginning their FOGO journeys, but all can learn from each other to change Australia’s waste system in time for 2030.

CREATING LESS-WASTEFUL

LED LIGHTING SOLUTIONS

LED lighting has many advantages over older-style metal halide modules in relation to control, colour temperature options and efficiency. However, one aspect that dogs the industry is that when components fail, the whole fitting has to be swapped out, consuming more raw materials and using large amounts of energy in the recycling process. This is why a low-cost, sustainable solution is on the horizon – ready for council sporting facilities to adopt.

LED lights, although more efficient, create more wastage compared with metal halide modules, where bulbs were simply replaced – which is not only more expensive, but not sustainable for the environment.

Every day failed lights are being recycled completely or even sent to landfill, along with the heavy components made from extractive mining – wasting precious resources.

Due to this, more needs to be done to find a low-cost and sustainable lighting solution for companies and organisations, such as council sporting facilities, to adopt.

REDUCING WASTE WITH A NEW INITIATIVE

Legacy Lighting has a vision for a more sustainable path for LED lighting and is committed to making this a reality with its new Legacy Loop recycling program.

LEDs have progressed very rapidly for the ten years leading up to 2022 with new sizes, output and iterations coming out every few months from every manufacturer.

During this period there has been massive increases in light output, efficiency, and durability, however with the overall trend slowing, improvements are becoming more incremental, and the pace of quantum change is slowing.

Legacy Lighting, as an Australian lighting manufacturer, has come up with a recycle scheme whereby LED panels can be replaced as old ones fail, or are superseded by newer, more efficient versions.

This is done by committing to maintaining PC boards with the same environmental footprint over the long term, ensuring that for decades into the future these boards will be able to be replaced inexpensively and sustainably.

BETTER FOR THE CLUB: SAVE MONEY AND THE PLANET

All LED lights consist of a heatsink (aluminium), a PC board with LEDs and a form of lighting control as an optic or reflector, with Legacy Lighting using optics made from PMMA.

This means that of the key components only the PC board and LEDs are likely to degrade over the long term, and in 15 years’ time when the lights need an upgrade to meet current standards, PC boards can be replaced, reusing the existing heatsink and optic.

The cost for the upgrade would be roughly 30 per cent of what a new fitting would cost, but more importantly, no waste would be entering landfill and the only part needing to be recycled would be the old aluminium PC boards.

Depending on the location the upgrade can be done on site, or sent back to Legacy Lighting for upgrade. An upgrade involves removing the lights and then reinstating them after, which would typically take two to four weeks, depending on the size and scale of the project.

MASSIVELY REDUCE WASTE

Working with Legacy Lighting PC board manufacturers can ensure an on-going supply of boards which can be used for many years to come.

The design of the system will also allow adaptation of new materials as they become available, staying with the vision of reducing waste and recycling, and creating overall better product life cycles.

Legacy means leaving something behind for others to enjoy, and doesn’t only involve lighting fields to provide these moments during sport, but creating an environment that will ensure preservation of resources long into the future.

Legacy Lighting has national coverage within Australia and is able to arrange site visits for assessment of an existing system and quotations to upgrade to the current Australian Standards. For more information visit: legacysportlighting.com/

AUSTRALIAN MADE LED SPORT LIGHTING