MEDIA RELEASE: FOGO gets the go-ahead in Moonee Valley
Action to reduce residential waste and ensure more sustainable waste collection has been given the green light, with Moonee Valley City Council resolving to endorse the expansion of the food organics and garden organics (FOGO) waste service to all single-dwelling households this coming financial year.
An additional 21,000 households in Moonee Valley will benefit from the expanded FOGO collection during the coming 2023-24 financial year. The FOGO service sees degradable household waste diverted from landfill and instead converted to compost for agriculture and related uses.
Moonee Valley City Council Mayor, Cr Pierce Tyson, said Council’s commitment to minimising harmful greenhouse emissions and the municipality’s environmental footprint was supported by the community’s enthusiasm towards FOGO disposal and collection.
“Around 30,000 households in Moonee Valley have opted-in for a fortnightly FOGO collection and just over a hundred households participated in the small, targeted trial phase in 2022. The trial’s success has resulted in Council moving to provide the service to an extra 21,000 residential properties this coming financial year,” said Mayor Tyson.
Council undertook an extensive consultation process with households participating in 2022 trials to understand preferred methods of waste collection and storage, frequency of kerbside bin collections and awareness of FOGO conversion into soil conditioning products. This engagement was complemented by an online Your Say survey to assess community needs and sentiments towards FOGO services in addition to their regular weekly landfill bin collections.
Council will continue a fortnightly FOGO service, while maintaining the current weekly collection of the red-lid, landfill bins. A new green-lid FOGO bin and kitchen caddy will be delivered to eligible households that currently don’t have the service. All FOGO eligible households in Moonee Valley will get a kitchen caddy for food waste and a complementary information pack will be included to ensure residents know what can go into their FOGO bin.
“Expanding FOGO collection to all households aligns with our community sustainability vision under Council’s MV2040 policy to ensure 90 per cent of waste is diverted from landfill. By reducing organic waste to landfill, we reduce emissions from landfill. Importantly, this initiative ensures we’re on track towards being a carbon-neutral municipality and net-zero emissions provider of services to the community,” said Mayor Tyson.
Moonee Valley will implement the FOGO collection expansion well ahead of the Victorian Government’s mandated deadline of 2030. Council will further expand kerbside bin services to include glass recycling by 2027 and will support the rollout of the legislated state-wide Container Deposit Scheme this year.
ENDS
For further information or to arrange an interview please contact –
Media Contact
Tess Garrod
Team Leader Media and Communications, Moonee Valley City Council
P: 0484 010 461 E: media@mvcc.vic.gov.au