City of Greater Geraldton executives recommend council vote against FOGO recycling program

Geraldton’s food organics and garden organics (FOGO) recycling trial could come to an end after limited success, under a recommendation put to city councillors.

The focus would instead turn to other recycling initiatives, with yellow-top bins still on the council’s radar.

The FOGO trial started in 2020 and saw 500 green-lidded bins supplied to residents to help improve sustainable waste practices.

FOGO such as food scraps and garden waste can be composted rather than sent to landfill, but only if separated from other rubbish.

During the first phases of the trial, contamination with substances which were not allowed in FOGO bins was a cause for concern.

Council documents reveal a host of reasons the trial was not succeeding, which included low bin presentation.

On average, 58 per cent of the 500 bins were being collected each week, which amounts to 290 bins put out for pick-up.

Contamination of non-FOGO material was much higher than the acceptable rate of 4-6 per cent, which consequently increased the cost of sorting and preparation.

The executive recommendation is for councillors to vote in favour of ending the FOGO trial, but to allocate $100,000 in the 2024-25 operational budget to investigate “alternative waste avoidance and recovery options”.

City of Greater Geraldton CEO Ross McKim assured councillors at this week’s agenda forum that the council maintained its desire to limit the amount of rubbish going to landfill.

“The bio-char option is still there, gas flaring depending on the amount of gas. Do we consider the yellow-top bin because folks understand that more than the FOGO bin,” he asked.

Mr McKim said a recycling program in the city was one of the most common requests from the community.

“But their desire and their practice currently doesn’t align. We’re just trying to see if there is something else there,” he said.

Councillors will vote on ending or continuing the trial at next week’s full council meeting.