Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO)

FOGO stands for Food Organics and Garden Organics. Your FOGO bin will be a standalone third wheelie bin, alongside your Yellow Recycling and Red Landfill bins.

Your FOGO bin is more than just a green waste bin – it accepts food organics. That includes fruit and veggie scraps, meat and bones (raw and cooked), seafood, eggs, dairy, bread, cakes, pasta, rice and more.

Because a FOGO bin accepts more than just green waste, its contents need to be processed differently to prevent them from becoming a biohazard. The contents of your FOGO bin will be collected turned into compost and soil conditioner through an industrial composting system.

There are so many reasons why Council is including FOGO in its waste collection services.

• Recycling the community’s food and garden organics is an important step in helping our environment. Your organic waste, which would otherwise go to landfill, will be turned into high quality compost and soil conditioner that can be put to good use in parks, gardens and farms, and rehabilitating land.
• By removing food from landfill, you’re helping to reduce the methane - a toxic greenhouse gas 26 times more potent than carbon dioxide - that rotting food emits as it undergoes anaerobic decomposition in landfill.
• By separating food organics in your FOGO bin, you’ll have more room in your landfill bin.
• If you already compost, FOGO will help you responsibly dispose of material you wouldn’t normally compost or put in your worm farm at home, like certified compostable single use items, dog droppings, compostable kitty litter, citrus, onion, meat, bones, dairy, seafood scraps and leftovers.
• If you currently take green waste to your local Transfer Station, you may no longer need to make those trips, saving you time.
• It will increase the lifespan of our current landfill, by reducing the amount of waste disposed of in it.
• Doesn’t it feel good to be part of the solution by contributing less to the climate crisis?

FOGO stands for Food Organics and Garden Organics.  

If it used to live or grow, it's FOGO. This includes all food waste (including meat, fish, bones, fruit, vegetables, leftovers, scraps, bread and more) and garden organics (such as grass clippings, weeds, rose cuttings and more). Material placed in the green FOGO bin is collected by Council’s waste collection contractors and taken to a specialised processing facility where it is turned into compost and soil conditioner. Today's food and garden scraps will help grow tomorrow’s fruit and vegetables.

The state government is in the process of standardising what can go in FOGO bins across Victoria. Council will share the full list with residents once it is released.

We understand, it’s been a slow-moving process. We are locked into a contract where FOGO collection will begin 6 July, 2026.

Frustratingly, it has taken some time to ensure local infrastructure for processing organics is in place.  

Currently, green waste is collected at our Transfer Stations and is processed by Council’s contractor, who turns it into mulch and dirt. Once food organics are added to the mix, it needs to be processed differently to be safely turned into compost and soil conditioner, without becoming a biohazard.

The contract to process Wellington's FOGO was awarded to Pinegro in Morwell, who need to build specialised processing infrastructure called in-vessel composting silos.

Wellington Shire Council has been working with Baw Baw, Latrobe City and South Gippsland shire councils to secure the contracts for the collection, transport, processing and recycling of all kerbside waste for many years.

In the meantime, there are a few options to dispose of garden waste.

• Green waste can be taken to all our Transfer Stations, excluding Dargo Transfer Station. Fees for green waste can be viewed on our Waste Disposal (Tip) Fees page. Transfer stations accept garden green waste and shrubbery, branches and prunings with a max diameter of 250mm and grass (minimal dirt).
• There are a number of local private companies locally that offer green waste disposal services.
• Home composting is a great way to break down organic waste at home. For more information on how to compost, see our fact sheet.

Yes. While we would love to introduce this service for free, it will cost more in order to cover collection and processing costs. The additional charge will appear as an increase to the waste service charge on your rates.

Over time, the goal is to reduce landfill costs. Sending waste to landfill is expensive and those costs are increased by the EPA each year. By recycling food and garden organics, we can lower those costs, extend the life span of our landfills and reduce environmental harm.

‍

Yes. With the introduction of weekly FOGO bins, collection of landfill bins will change to fortnightly. We are changing our garbage collection services to increase the amount of waste we divert from landfill and reduce our impact on the environment.

The additional bin provides extra capacity, so there is no reduction in service. It is important each household sorts their waste efficiently to get the best use out of their bins.

Data collected across Victoria indicates food waste makes up more than 45% of the contents of the average household landfill bin, while material that could have been sorted into the commingled recycling bin make up a further 10%.

For the average Victorian household, the other 45% consists of items that can’t be placed into the commingled recycling bin, and that create less odour than food and garden organics. Most households should not experience odour or hygiene issues from less frequent collection of the landfill bin.

We understand that some households may struggle with a fortnightly garbage service so we will consider each household on a case-by-case basis.