FOGO stands for Food Organics, Garden Organics – a waste management system taking the Australia by storm.
It’s basically backyard composting on an industrial scale – taking kitchen food scraps and garden clippings and turning them into nutrient rich compost.
Now the Brisbane City Council opposition team (Labor) wants to bring FOGO to the river city.
They’ve surveyed residents over the past year and the results are in.
Out of the more than 2,000 responses, 98% said they think Brisbane City Council should offer a FOGO waste collection service.
95% said they would use the FOGO system if it existed.
“This is a great initiative and something all Brisbane residents should be doing,” one survey participant wrote.
“Great idea, would love to have the opportunity. I Feel like Australia’s ability to recycle/reuse correctly is looked down upon because we don’t have the opportunity to do it well,” another commented.
“We’ve been listening to the people of Brisbane for over a year now and it’s
overwhelmingly clear they want FOGO,” Deputy Opposition Leader Councillor Kara Cook said.
“Whether you rent or own, live in an apartment or in a house, FOGO gives everyone the opportunity to compost, create jobs and address climate change.”
Right now around 80,000 tonnes of waste that goes into Brisbane’s landfill every year is organic.
Opposition leader Jared Cassidy says taking that organic material out of landfill wouldn’t just be good for the environment but also great for the economy.
“Reusing and recycling waste creates three times as many jobs as putting it into
landfill and FOGO jobs are ongoing, not just during construction,” Cr Cassidy said.
“It’s the perfect COVID-19 recovery project to create jobs and reboot our economy.”
“FOGO will also save ratepayers millions of dollars in waste levy charges, by taking all of that extra organic waste out of landfill.”
At least 70 other councils across Australia already have a FOGO home collection service.
Out of all FOGO-friendly rubbish, Brisbane residents said they would most likely use the service to compost fruit and vegetable scraps, followed by garden and green waste, tea bags, coffee grinds and stale bread.
