Is your local council dragging its heels on introducing the FOGO system?
Figures released this week have revealed that only one in four Australian councils allow residents to mix food and garden waste for kerbside collection, despite the significant environmental benefits it can have.
Under the Australian Government’s 2019 National Waste Policy Action Plan, homes and businesses are supposed to have implemented food and garden organic (FOGO) collection by 2023, as a key part of a national strategy to halve food waste by 2030.
Department for Environment figures however, show that just 139 of 537 local governments currently have FOGO collection in place. An updated version of the plan, released in October, now reveals the national target has been pushed back to 2030, and only includes metropolitan areas.
Until recently, food has accounted for almost 40% of the general waste produced by our households, and when that food waste degrades in landfills, it produces harmful greenhouse gases like methane which is 25 times stronger than CO2.
The National Food Waste Strategy Feasibility Study produced by Food Innovation Australia Limited in 2021 reported that:
– Food waste costs the economy around $36.6 billion each year.
– Each year we waste around 7.6 million tonnes of food across the supply and consumption chain – this wastage equals about 312kg per person, equivalent to around one in five bags of groceries or $2,000 to $2,500 per household per year.
– Food waste accounts for approximately 3% of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
– Australia uses around 2600 gigalitres of water to grow food that is wasted – this equates to the volume of water in five Sydney Harbours.
– The amount of land used to grow wasted food covers in excess of 25 million hectares, a landmass larger than the state of Victoria.
FOGO allows us to not only divert that food waste from landfill, but when the participating councils collect the FOGO bins, the contents are turned into compost for use in parks, sports fields, farms or in residents’ gardens.
So, if your local council has not yet implemented the system, ask them why not.
