Three-bin FOGO system | City of Fremantle
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Three-bin FOGO system

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About the three-bin FOGO system

The three-bin Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) system was rolled out to over 11,000 City of Fremantle households in September 2019. FOGO is the collection of food scraps (FO) and organic garden (GO) waste, including dog poo and kitty litter.

The three-bin FOGO system provides residents with more options for separating their waste with the aim to improve recovery rates, increase diversion from landfill and reduce costs of processing material. By collecting organics in the FOGO bin, we generate high quality compost to use on farms, parks and gardens and avoid organic waste going to landfill, which produces harmful methane gas.

The three-bin system includes:    

Bin lid colour

Bin size

Bin purpose

Collection frequency

Lime green

240L

Food Organic Garden Organics (FOGO)

 Weekly

Yellow

240L

Recycling

 Fortnightly

Red

140L

General waste

 Fortnightly

Graphic displaying four coloured bins.

What can be put in each bin?

Lime green-lidded FOGO bin

All food organics including raw and cooked, bread, dairy, bones, shells, and garden organics. FOGO waste is composted so it’s important to keep plastic, metal and glass out of this bin. All food waste is to go into your FOGO bin either in a compostable liner, wrapped in newspaper or loose in the bin. Please make sure food is removed from the packaging before being placed in the bin as any plastic packaging can contaminate the compost.

Accepted:

  • Tea bags and coffee grounds
  • Food waste, including meat, dairy, fish, bones, eggshells, and leftover meals.
  • Animal waste, including dog poo and kitty litter.
  • Garden organics, including lawn clippings, branches, flowers, weeds, and leaves.

Remove food from the packaging before placing it into the FOGO bin. No plastic, glass (including compostable food packaging) or metal in this bin.

Visit the compostable caddy liner FAQs page to find out about replacement caddy liners.

Yellow-lidded recycling bin

All items that go into the yellow-lidded recycling bin need to be clean, dry, and empty:

  • Firm plastic bottles and containers; with lids removed, including cleaning product bottles, detergent bottles, punnets used to hold berries and tomatoes, bottles, trays, ice cream containers, plastic crockery, takeaway food containers, yoghurt containers and hard plastic packaging. Remember, if the plastic is scrunchable, it belongs in your general waste bin.
  • Cardboard boxes; clean and flattened, including cereal boxes, packing boxes, egg cartons, clean pizza boxes, and toilet paper rolls.
  • Paper (excluding shredded paper) such as magazines, newspaper, office paper, paper bags, envelopes (including those with windows), and wrapping paper.
  • Glass bottles and jars; clean and lids removed.
  • Cans and tins; including baking trays, cake trays, cans, and foil that is clean and scrunched into a ball.

Extra yellow bin recyclables can be dropped off at the Fremantle Recycling Centre on Montreal Street free of charge.

If you find the capacity of your recycling bin is an issue, you can request an upgrade to a larger 360L recycling bin by contacting the City on 1300 MY FREO (1300 693 736) or email info@fremantle.wa.gov.au. Fees apply.

Red-lidded general waste bin

  • General rubbish items that cannot be composted or recycled, such as nappies, meat trays, polystyrene, plastic bags, long-life tetrapak cartons, phone books, and soft plastics.

For a full list of items, visit Recycle Right.

Some items should not be placed into any of your bins and instead, can be dropped off at Fremantle Recycling Centre.

Vertical Tabs

How do I order a new bin/replace a damaged bin?

Ordering new waste and/or recycling bin(s) for a new property or replacing a damaged or lost bin can be arranged by completing our online form.

Multi-unit developments (MUD) residents will need to complete a MUD application for waste and recycling bins instead.

I only have a two-bin system?

The City upgraded its bin system to the three-bin system, with FOGO, to capture food organics in 2019. Less than 1% of the City's properties remained on the old system which contains a dark green lidded landfill bin, and a yellow lidded recycling bin. This may be due to service requirements. If you want to include FOGO, then please get in touch with Waste Services.

What to do with your food waste? All of the items listed under the FOGO bin can be placed into your dark green lidded landfill bin.

Is there an additional charge?

No. All City of Fremantle waste management services is covered by your rates.

Why has the size of the general waste bin changed?

On average, 50-60% of the waste we put into our general waste bin is FOGO material. When food and garden waste is sent to landfill, it generates harmful methane gas and contributes to higher processing costs through landfill fees.

Residents are encouraged to use their FOGO bin to ensure we can recover as much organic waste as possible and convert this material into much need compost. All your food waste including leftovers, peelings, cooked and raw meat, bones, shells, bread, seafood and dairy products can go into your FOGO bin, along with paper products like tissues, napkins, shredded paper, soiled newspaper and soiled pizza boxes.

If there’s not much going in your FOGO bin each week, you may wish to speak to your neighbour to see if you can set up a sharing arrangement.

We already compost at home, do we still need the FOGO bin?

We encourage you to compost at home, however, you can use your lime green-topped FOGO bin for things you can’t put in your home compost bin, like bones, meat and seafood.

My FOGO bin is too large

Even if you don’t have a lot of food or garden waste, residents are encouraged to use their FOGO bin to ensure we can recover as much organic waste as possible. If food and garden waste is sent to landfill, it generates harmful methane gas and contributes to higher processing costs through landfill fees.

All your food waste including leftovers, peelings, cooked and raw meat, bones, shells, bread, seafood and dairy products can go into your FOGO bin, along with paper products like tissues, napkins, shredded paper, soiled newspaper and soiled pizza boxes.

If you find there’s not much going in your FOGO bin each week, you may wish to speak to your neighbour to see if you can set up a sharing arrangement.

My FOGO bin is too small

If you find you don’t have enough space in your FOGO bin, contact the City’s Waste Management Team on 9432 9999.

In addition to the organics collection service provided through your FOGO bin, the City also provides Bulk Garden Organics pickups which are scheduled twice per year.

What happens to my FOGO material?

FOGO is delivered to the Resource Recovery Group in Canning Vale. The material is processed through a commercial composting facility and undergoes manual sorting where any items that don’t belong in the FOGO bin are removed. The system is only set up to remove a very small amount of contamination. If the amount of items that shouldn’t be placed into the FOGO bins increases substantially, the quality of the compost can be compromised and won’t be able to meet Australian Standards. The compost material is then processed and blended into products for the market by a contractor, to Australian Standard AS4454 .

This Recycle Right YouTube video shows how your FOGO material is processed from your FOGO bin to compost. 

Or see this recycling video.

Is the compost available to residents?

Yes (subject to availability). The sale of FOGO derived compost is for sale at the Fremantle Recycling Centre for $5 per 25-litre bag.

The bags contain 30% FOGO-derived material from the FOGO bins in the City of Fremantle, City of Melville and Town of East Fremantle. By using this compost, residents are closing the loop on their food and garden waste.

I have questions about the caddy and liners

Please visit the caddy liner FAQ page.

I need translated bin flyers

Bin flyers are available in: Amharic, Burmese, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Macedonian, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese

Bin placement

Residents are required to place bins on the kerb by 6am on bin collection day.

Bins need to be brought back behind the property line within a reasonable amount of time after collection.

Bins left on the verge, street and footpath can block access to dwellings and pose hazards to pedestrians within the area.    

Please be aware that choosing to leave bins within the street contravenes the City’s Health Local Laws.