Launceston council cashing in on residents’ scraps, selling 2000 tonnes of FOGO compost

A Tasmanian council is cashing in on its residents food and organic waste, selling more than 2000 tonnes of compost sourced entirely from household scraps.

• Break out your boots and let out a yeehaw. Tasdance wants you for a mega community dance project
• Injured passenger abandoned by early morning crash driver

LAUNCESTON’S Food and Garden Organics kerbside collection service has become the largest in Tasmania with more than 9500 households now opting in.

The city’s FOGO service was launched in 2017 with the hope of diverting organic material

away from landfill, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and extending the life of landfill cells.

Since then, the Council has worked to expand availability to more areas with Dilston, Windermere and Swan Bay the next in line for a FOGO rollout.

Residents of these areas of the municipality can now register for a FOGO bin for a one-off fee of $65, with collections set to begin on October 20.

The City of Launceston this week opened the sale of processed FOGO compost to wholesalers for distribution to the retail market.

Jacinta Moloney with three year old daughter Sasha Sinclair inside their kitchen with their FOGO bin for food scraps. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Two thousand tonnes of compost are available to purchase by wholesalers, with a minimum

purchase quantity of ten tonnes.

Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten said the Council hoped this would create new business

opportunities and product streams.

“Past waste audits have shown that up to 50 per cent of the waste in the average Launceston

household’s rubbish bin was made up of organic waste,” he said.

“The kerbside FOGO service allows us to divert all that material away from landfill and to capture those nutrients for re-use in the form of processed compost.

“It is a real win-win and we’ve been amazed at how Northern Tasmanians have embraced this

initiative.”