Keep plastics out of FOGO

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It’s important to keep plastic (like food packaging, fruit stickers, plant pots, and plastic bags) out of your green-lidded FOGO bin.

Plastic items won’t break down with your food scraps and garden clippings and will contaminate the compost that is made from your organics. So, if your food and garden organics bin contains plastic, your food scraps and garden clippings may end up in landfill instead of being composted.

Follow these tips to use your FOGO bin correctly:

  • Remove stickers from your fruit and vegetables.
  • Keep tea bags, coffee pods, cardboard, paper, and biodegradable packaging out of your FOGO bin.
  • Never put bags of rubbish in your FOGO bin.
  • Separate garden clippings from other garden items like potting mix bags, fertiliser bags and plant pots – no plastics in your green bin.
  • Do not put plastic plant identification tags, garden hoses, painted timber, or timber offcuts in your FOGO bin. Use your landfill bin (red lid) to dispose of these items.
  • Put empty plastic containers from liquid fertiliser in your recycling bin (yellow lid) instead.
  • Use the Council-supplied compostable bags to collect your food. These bags are made from 100% cornstarch and are AS 4736-certified, which means they have been tested and will breakdown correctly during the composting process. Some other bags that are marked 100% compostable don’t compost completely and can contaminate the final compost material.

Pick up a free roll of 100% cornstarch AS 4736-certified compostable bags from:

  • Anglesea, Lorne and Winchelsea transfer stations
  • Council office – 1 Merrijig Drive, Torquay
  • Lorne Visitor Information Centre
  • Torquay Visitor information Centre
  • Torquay residential waste drop-off – 130 Messmate Road

By using your FOGO bin correctly, you help make high-quality mulch and compost for use on farms and orchards. This helps improve air quality and grow the crops that feed us all.

Small actions like correctly using your green bin can make a big impact.

Visit www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/a-z  for details of what can and cannot go in your kerbside bins.

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