FOGO at schools and early learning centres

FOGO is a combined Food Organics, Garden Organics (FOGO) food recycling service that turns your green lid bin contents into compost for farmers. Your green lid bin accepts all food scraps including meats, dairy and bones with your regular household garden organics.

All schools in NSW are required by the state government to recycle food scraps by 2030. Inner West Council is offering this service to schools, supporting you to make sure your FOGO service is successful. Composting your food scraps through the green lid bin helps to:

• Support local farmers and the agricultural industry
• Create full-time employment opportunities
• Further Australia's domestic waste processing capacity
• Develop Australian Made products and improve the local economy
• Reduce waste to landfill and support a circular economy
• Minimise the impacts of climate change
• Teach students how to recycle and why it's important

You can use any container to transfer your food scraps – including meats, dairy, and bones – into the green lid bin.

Use your kitchen benchtop bin and compostable liners to easily transfer your scraps from kitchen to kerb:

• Line your kitchen benchtop bin with the compostable liners provided. You can also put your food scraps in 'nude’ (without a liner)
• Collect food scraps, expired food and leftover food in your kitchen benchtop bin
• Empty into your green lid bin as needed
• Cover your scraps with leaves, branches or grass clippings. This will keep your bin smelling fresh

Please note, there are different ways to run a successful FOGO service at school. We will guide you through the most successful ways in a site visit.

Important notes

All expired, stale, rotten or freezer burnt foods must be removed from their packaging before going in the FOGO food recycling bin.

Only use certified compostable liners. No plastic or ‘biodegradable’ bags or liners. 

The following items CANNOT go in the FOGO bin:

Food and garden organics are taken to a licenced composting facility and turned into nutrient rich compost.

Firstly, your FOGO is cleaned by removing contamination (by hand and with machinery). It's then shredded into smaller pieces so healthy fungi and bacteria can break it down. The shredded material is transferred to a composting platform (called windrows) where heat, water and oxygen turn it to a soil-like material.  

FOGO material is tested to ensure compliance with EPA and Australian Standards and screened into a range of product sizes prior to sale. Three common products include:

Soil conditioners - like hair conditioners - increase the strength of soils by providing essential nutrients. Soil conditioners can increase the water holding capacity of soils - meaning they can absorb more water during intense rainfall. This reduces soil erosion, flood damage and increases the amount of water they can store for periods of drought. Climate resilient soils are critical as weather patterns become more extreme and less predictable.

Compost - compost provides essential nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N,P,K). Compost increases the abundance and diversity of microbes in the soil which allows plants to access more nutrients in the soil. This improves plant growth and means more grass on your sporting fields or more corn on your cob!

Fertiliser - organic fertilisers provide a balanced and slow release of essential nutrients to the soil. This reduces the risk of polluting waterways and provides a more reliable source of food for crops. Fertilisers made from FOGO are created using natural feedstocks and require far less energy than synthetic fertilisers.

Three good reasons farmers want your FOGO (food organics, garden organics):

1. Compost creates resilient soils – compost increases the amount of water soils can absorb. This reduces flooding during intense rainfall events and means soils can store more water during extended periods of hot and dry weather. 
    
2. Compost returns nutrients to the soil and reduces farmers’ reliance on artificial fertilisers. Synthetic fertilisers require a lot of energy to make, are more expensive than compost and are harmful to pristine waterways. 
    
3. Compost enhances the natural immunity of soils - natural microbes on compost help naturally fight off disease and decreases the reliance on synthetic pesticides. Healthy crops mean better quality produce.  

That's great! Compost bins and worm farms avoid emissions from transporting food and garden organics and produce a nutrient rich product for school gardens. We encourage schools to continue using compost bin and worm farming systems for their food scraps.

We recommend using unlined benchtop bins or food scrap containers for compost bins and worm farms.

There are some items like meat, dairy, rice and grains, which are best not composted or given to worms. You can use your green lid FOGO bin to keep them out of landfill. 

Even the most seasoned users can experience challenges with FOGO. Avoid odours and pests by following some of these tips:

1. Freeze meats, bones and dairy until bin night. We promise it won't stink out your freezer.
2. Store your benchtop bin, and wheelie bin, away from direct sunlight.
3. Sprinkle bicarb in the bottom of your benchtop bin to absorb liquids. This will reduce odours and increase the life of your compostable bin liner.
4. If possible, cover food scraps in the wheelie bin with leaves, branches or lawn clippings.
5. Rinse and dry your FOGO benchtop bin and wheelie bin after emptying. Your benchtop bin is dishwasher safe - the handles and lid can be removed for easy stacking.
6. Consider using a bin tag to deter pests which are attracted to odours in the warmer months. Bin repellents can be purchased from hardware retailers, supermarkets and local grocers.
7. You don't have to use the benchtop bin provided. Consider using an old Tupperware or airtight container (old ice cream, hummus or yoghurt tub) to store your scraps. Airtight containers keep odours contained and won't attract flies.

Schools are provided with up to 30 x 7 litre benchtop bins. If you require more, we recommend using a large yoghurt tub, ice cream container or old Tupperware container to collect food scraps.

It's not mandatory to use the supplied benchtop bin. Schools are encouraged to use any container with a lid that suits your classroom, staffroom, canteen or kitchen.

If you need an additional benchtop bin or wish to replace the lid or handle of a damaged bin, please email rethink.waste@innerwest.nsw.gov.au with your school's name.

Schools are provided with one pack of 75 liners per kitchen bench top bin, to help get you started with FOGO. 

After this, you need to purchase liners from major supermarkets, independent grocers and hardware retailers. Please make sure to purchase green liners with the seedling logo, marked AS4736. Regular plastic bags and "biodegradable" or "degradable" bags will contaminate the compost used by farmers. 

If you don't want to pay for liners, you are welcome to use the service without them. Put food scraps straight into your bench top bin and then empty directly into the wheelie bin. Rinse both bins regularly.

Your Council contact will tell you after the initial meeting but you can also check the Waste Calendar to find out.