City-wide FOGO Service Update
7 June 2023
Ipswich City Council will be setting the standard as the first council in Queensland to adopt a citywide Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) waste collection as a part of a three-bin core service.
Growth, Infrastructure and Waste Committee Chair Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said FOGO has been operating in Ipswich as an opt-in user pays service for several years.
It was also trialled in 1,000 homes across Raceview and Bellbird Park since 2021 as a core service and would be available to more Ipswich residents from next year.
‘’This initiative enables residents to recycle their food organics and garden organics by disposing of them separately from general waste,” Mayor Harding said.
“The expansion of the current opt-in FOGO service to a citywide core service means that an additional green lid FOGO bin will be included alongside the regular kerbside general waste red lid and co-mingled yellow lid bin collections.’’
These additional households will join the current 26,000 properties that already have a FOGO service and the FOGO collection will be a fortnightly service, alternating with recycling collection.
The implementation of the citywide FOGO service is scheduled to begin early in the 2024-2025 financial year, with an exact date yet to be finalised.
“By diverting organic waste from landfill, council aims to make significant progress in improving recycling rates and supporting our resource recovery strategy,” Mayor Harding said.
“This change aligns with the council's commitment to environmental sustainability and the promotion of a circular economy.”
Residents will benefit from this initiative in several ways:
- Cost effectiveness: Diverting waste from landfill will reduce the impact of the state's waste landfill levy on council rates for Ipswich residents.
- Meeting standards: Diverting organics from landfill contributes to state waste diversion targets.
- Environmental sustainability: Residents will be able to divert organic waste from landfill, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving a higher recycling rate.
- Future Ipswich City: Promoting a circular economy by transforming organic waste into quality compost or other valuable end products.
Growth, Infrastructure and Waste Committee Deputy Chairperson Councillor Paul Tully, said the introduction of the FOGO service will not affect the existing kerbside collection services.
“The FOGO service is specifically designed to collect organic waste and promote resource recovery,” Cr Tully said.
‘’If residents want to start recycling their food and garden organic material today, they have the option to commence an opt-in FOGO service before 2024-2025 by visiting the FOGO page on the council website.
‘’Council is excited to embark on this innovative initiative, and we look forward to the positive environmental impact it will have on our community.”
For the most up-to-date information on the FOGO service and other resource recovery initiatives, please visit the council website. To stay informed, residents can download the Ipswich Bin App and sign up for updates and announcements via the Resource Recovery in Ipswich Shape Your Ipswich page.
Read about what the introduction of a city-wide FOGO collection means for the community below. Alternatively, you can access this information on council's website.
The current opt-in Food Organic and Garden Organics (FOGO) service will be expanding to a city-wide core service. This will mean an additional green lid FOGO bin will be included to the regular kerbside general waste red lid and co-mingle yellow lid bin collections. This will be a fortnightly service alternating with recycling collection.
This change will allow Ipswich to make improvements towards higher recycling rate by diverting valuable organics from landfill.One of the easiest ways to help reduce waste to landfill is to divert food and garden material from the red lid waste bin into a specialised green lid FOGO bin. Residents will benefit with the following:
- Cost effective – Reducing the impact of the state’s waste landfill levy on the council rates to Ipswich residents by diverting waste from landfill
- Meeting Standards – Diverting organics from landfill contributes to state waste diversion targets
- Environmentally sustainability –residents will be able to divert organic waste from landfill that can reduce greenhouse gas emission and achieve higher recycling rate.
Ipswich City Council is also looking to expand its Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) from 2024/25. The exact dates for the implementation of the FOGO service have not been finalised yet.
To stay up to date with all things Resource Recovery related you can download the Ipswich Bin App and sign up for updates and announcements via the Resource Recovery in Ipswich Shape your Ipswich page.
Households are still able to commence a user pays FOGO service prior to 2024/25 if the wish by visiting:
Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO): Ipswich City CouncilThe introduction of the FOGO service will not impact the existing kerbside collection services. Residents are encouraged to continue using the recycling as usual by separating recyclable materials from general waste and placing them in their yellow top recycling bins.
The FOGO service is specifically designed to collect organic waste and promote resource recovery.
Please refer to the council website for the most up-to-date information.
Residents are always encouraged to compost at home, this is highly efficient and creates a useful product for reuse at home. The FOGO service can be seen as complimentary to home composting, if you are already doing that, and provides additional capacity if not everything can be dealt with at home, such as large volumes of grass clippings or meat and dairy products.
No, residents who have already opted into the FOGO service will not experience any changes. Their existing service will remain the same.
The core FOGO service is being implemented for residential properties. However, it is possible that in the future, Council recognises the important part businesses and commercial properties play in recovering organic materials. Council is still considering how it may include businesses and commercial entities. Information about the processes, eligibility and participation of non-residential properties will be communicated separately, once finalised.
