FOGO recycling for apartments to commence this spring

Published 5 October 2023

This October we are expanding our FOGO (food and garden organics) recycling services to a portion of apartments and unit blocks in our City. This will increase the amount of organic waste we recycle into compost, resulting in less waste to landfill and a reduced impact on the environment.

In January 2023, we began to deliver kerbside FOGO bins to eligible houses and townhouses. Between now and mid-2024, we will expand this service (free of charge) to eligible apartments and unit blocks.

To ensure our kerbside collection services remain as stable as possible, we will be rolling out FOGO recycling in phases:

Phase one: properties that receive a kerbside service on a Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday will receive one or more FOGO bins from late October. The first FOGO collection will occur in the week commencing Monday 13 November.
Phase two: properties with a service on Wednesday or Friday will receive their service in mid 2024. Exact timings will be communicated as soon as possible.

Both phase one and phase two residents will receive a letter in mid-October 2023 explaining this phased approach.

Residents who are not included in phase 1 of the FOGO rollout can make use of our communal FOGO hubs in the interim. We have recently installed an additional 21 across the municipality, so there are now over 50 joint FOGO and glass hubs. Any resident can use these hubs, including those that do not receive a Council waste service.

Free kitchen caddies to use with your FOGO bin

Our free kitchen caddies are designed to make it easier to collect food waste in your kitchen before disposing of it in a FOGO bin. We will be delivering kitchen caddies to low rise apartment blocks only (those with four to 12 units), along with a FOGO brochure.

Residents living in larger apartments and unit blocks can either:

request FOGO caddies and liners be delivered to their building – via their owners corporation or building manager or
collect a free kitchen caddy and roll of caddy liners from any of our five library branches: Albert Park, Emerald Hill, Middle Park, Port Melbourne and St Kilda.

For more information on FOGO recycling, including detailed information on what can go in your FOGO bin, visit: Dispose of your Food and Garden Organics (FOGO) - City of Port Phillip