Food Organics and Garden Organics Service

• Food leftovers
• Fruit and vegetable scraps
• Meat, fish and bones (raw and cooked)
• Eggs and eggshells
• Cheese and yoghurt
• All bakery items (including bread, cakes, crackers)
• Bread, pasta, rice, noodles
• Spoiled foods  
• Citrus and onions
• Loose tea leaves and coffee grounds (excluding teabags and coffee pods)
• Grass clippings
• Flowers and leaves
• And more! 

• Food packaging
• Plastic bags
• Clingwrap
• Stickers or rubber bands
• Animal droppings
• Bricks or other building waste
• Stones
• Tree stumps
• Treated or painted timber
• Noxious weeds
• Plastics pots and containers.

Processing food scraps in our green bin requires a more intensive process compared to composting garden waste only.

Pinegro are developing a new industrial composting facility in Morwell that can process food and garden organics, to transform this material into valuable compost and soil conditioner to be used locally and throughout Victoria in parks, gardens and farms.

Council have been working in collaboration with other Gippsland Councils including Latrobe City Council, South Gippsland Shire Council and Wellington Shire Council, to award an organics processing contract for the FOGO introduction.

By putting your food scraps into the food and garden organics bin instead of the general rubbish bin from 6 July 2026, you can help support the natural environment and reduce waste going to landfill.  

• Introducing a FOGO service to turn your food scraps into high quality compost and soil conditioner will return these nutrients back to the environment in parks, gardens and farms, as part of the circular economy.
• By placing our food scraps into the green bin, we can reduce costs.
  It is cheaper for Council to process your food scraps as food and garden organics in the green bin compared to sending them to landfill in the red bin, particularly as the cost of the EPA landfill levy is increasing every year. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) landfill levy is a charge paid to the State Government on waste disposed in landfill.
• Your FOGO bin can complement your home composting system really well.
  You can place certain items into your FOGO bin that some home composting systems can’t accept, such as cooked foods, meat, bones, dairy and citrus.
• Food scraps disposed in landfill create methane, a harmful greenhouse gas.
  Preventing food scraps going to landfill reduces our impact on the natural environment.
• Introducing a weekly FOGO bin and fortnightly red general rubbish bin collection frequency reduces transportation costs.
• By providing a weekly 240L green bin and fortnightly 120L red bin collection service, households will receive an extra 240L capacity every four weeks.

Council will be delivering a kitchen caddy, compostable bags and an information pack to all households with a Council kerbside waste service in May – June 2026. 

Yes, only food scraps and garden clippings can be placed in your FOGO bin.

Food packaging including stickers, rubber bands, plastic containers, tins, plastic bags or plastic wrapping cannot be placed into your FOGO bin. 

Currently over 53% of waste found in our average red general rubbish bin is made up of food and garden organics, glass recycling or mixed recycling.

When FOGO is introduced and food scraps will be placed in your green bin, your green FOGO bin will be collected every week, and your red general rubbish bin will be collected fortnightly.

More than 23 Victorian Councils already collect general rubbish bins every two weeks. They’re sending less to landfill because people put their food scraps in the FOGO bin every week. 

It is important to reduce waste to landfill to reduce waste disposal costs.

Emptying FOGO bins weekly will also help in reducing issues of smell and mess.

We understand that some households may struggle with a fortnightly general rubbish service, and we are investigating further opportunities for waste diversion initiatives and supporting residents to reduce waste. 

Here are a few simple tips and tricks to help manage your FOGO bin. Where possible; 

• Keep your bin in shaded area out of the sun
• Keep your bin lid closed
• Wash your kitchen caddy and bin regularly
• Place grass clippings or garden prunings at the base of your FOGO bin, and in layers with food scraps
• Refrigerate or freeze foods until bin night - like meat, seafood and dairy
• Sprinkle some bi-carb soda in your kitchen caddy or FOGO bin to absorb any odours.