Brisbane Labor opposition launches green bin ‘FOGO’ policy for food scraps

Vegetable scraps, coffee grinds and egg shells could have their own dedicated bin for council collection, according to a new policy to be unveiled by Labor Brisbane.

Vegetable scraps, coffee grinds and egg shells could have their own dedicated bin for council collection, according to a new policy to be unveiled by Labor Brisbane.

A year-long survey of 2017 residents by Brisbane’s Opposition has found 93 per cent of residents think including food scraps in council’s green-top bins would reduce the amount of waste going into landfill.

Currently the green-top bins collected by Brisbane City Council can only be used for grass clippings and garden waste.

But Brisbane’s opposition leader Jared Cassidy and Morningside councillor Kara Cook said diverting food organics and garden organics, or FOGO, to green bins could add three times as many jobs as when they go into general waste and then sold off to farmers.

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“FOGO will also dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and save ratepayers millions of dollars in waste levy charges, by taking 80,000 tonnes of organics out of landfill each year,” Labor opposition leader Jared Cassidy said.

“It’s the perfect COVID-19 recovery project to create jobs and reboot our economy,” Cr Cassidy said.

Labor claimed the service had been rolled out in 70 other local governments across Australia.

Currently residents could only throw food scraps in general waste (right) or compost it in their own backyards. Picture: File.

The Labor-commissioned survey said 95 per cent of Brisbane respondents would use the service, even though the results also showed 48 per cent of respondents weren’t currently composting.

Morningside councillor Kara Cook said allowing green bins to take food scraps would take backyard composting to “a citywide, industrial scale.”

“We can take our kitchen and garden scraps and turn them into rich compost to use

across the city or sell to farmers, either way ratepayers benefit,” Cr Cook said.

Originally published as Brisbane Labor opposition launches green bin ‘FOGO’ policy for food scraps