Heading: Murrumbidgee To Implement Food Organics and Garden Organics Collection

Murrumbidgee Shire Council is set to receive $130,650 in funding to cover the cost of new bins and kitchen caddies for the Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection service kicking off in July this year.

Mayor, Ruth McRae said the announcement was made by the Minister for Environment and Heritage, James Griffin MP as part of the Go FOGO grants program.

“It’s a tremendous outcome for us at Council and all ratepayers,” Ms McRae said.

“We are thoroughly committed to this new initiative to manage waste more effectively, while at the same time, minimising the cost to ratepayers.”

Minister for Environment, James Griffin said more than one-third of the State’s waste that ended up in landfills was food, which was left to rot and generate dangerous greenhouse gases.

“Now, FOGO is revolutionising household waste,” Mr Griffin said.

“It’s a new service that will be composted and given a new life, instead of ending up in landfill.”

Mayor McRae said implementing a new service such as FOGO, as well as starting recycling in Jerilderie was a big change for the community and the way we sorted waste.

“Basically, if it used to live or grow, it’s good to go in FOGO,” she said.

“This means all food scraps (including meat and seafood), garden organics, compostable kitchen caddy liners (Australian Standard AS 4736-2006) and fibre-based kitchen caddy liners (eg. paper and newspaper), can go in your FOGO bin.

“Because these materials may become smelly, the FOGO service will be collected weekly.

“Our other two waste services, namely general waste in the red-lidded bin and recycling in the yellow-lidded bin, we be collected fortnightly.

“We appreciate that families with young children may be concerned with the odour from nappies, which will need to be placed in the general waste bin, but we encourage you to take steps to minimise this by removing as much faeces as possible in the toilet first, or alternatively using reusable nappies.”

Visit Council’s website at https://bit.ly/3iYDFoY for more information about the new three-bin system.

With plans well underway for the program’s implementation, ratepayers will receive a questionnaire in the third instalment of the rates and water notices where they can elect to swap their existing 240-litre red-lidded bin for a 120-litre on.

“Based on the reduction in waste when the FOGO content is removed, we are confident this size will suit most households, however, we are giving ratepayers the opportunity to choose which size they prefer,” Mayor McRae said.

• Topics:

• My House My Home
• The Environment