FOGO trial saves 20 tonnes from landfill
THE first two weeks of a food and organic waste trial has been a smashing success with more than 20 tonnes diverted from landfill.
Townsville City Council has been trialling the Food Organics and Garden Organics trial since the start of the month as part of a wider effort to reduce the amount of waste going into landfill.
While there is a waste levy charged on residential waste, the state government covers the cost for councils.
However, concerns this payment could be reconsidered has led to councils looking at new ways to save material from landfill.
Water and Waste Committee chairman Russ Cook said the initial results of the program was a good indicator the community was keen to reduce waste.
“We began FOGO in the first week of October and in the first two weeks we’ve had a presentation rate of around 60 per cent from eligible households with 20,400kg of material collected,” Mr Cook said. “It’s encouraging to see the community jumping on board with almost all bins being presented showing minimal contamination, we’re hoping that this will continue and that we’ll see an uptick in the households using the bins.”
Townsville City Council bin checks earlier this year found an average of 18.4 per cent of waste in kerbside bins was food organics, while 27.2 per cent was garden organics.
Mr Cook said residents in the trial areas of Idalia, Heatley, Vincent and Burdell needed to double check what could go in the linegreen lidded bin to make sure the trucks weren’t diverted to landfill. “Plastics, food packaging and other general waste can contaminate the FOGO loads and mean that the whole truck goes to landfill instead of being mulched and reused,” Mr Cook said.
“While we continue to track these results, council is now asking the community to provide feedback on what they would like to see rolled out across the board.”
The FOGO trial, which received $220,000 from the Queensland government, has been implemented across 1500 properties.
Mr Cook said the trial would provide crucial information for the council to adapt its waste management services.
He said the trial was important because of the need to transition to more sustainable waste management practices.
“This is to ensure we can meet our aspiration of zero waste to landfill by 2030 and to align with policies and strategies being implemented by the Queensland and Australian governments,” Mr Cook said.
The FOGO Have Your Say survey is available on the council’s website.