Long an organic recycling laggard, SEQ gives FOGO another crack

South-east Queensland councils are teaming up to trial food-waste recycling programs for apartments, resorts and townhouses.

Backed by $4 million in state funding, the trials will run in the Brisbane, Gold Coast, Noosa and Sunshine Coast councils, with residents’ scraps to be collected by local companies that will either dehydrate or compost them for use in the garden, or process them to create biogas and energy.

FOGO – which stands for food organics and garden organics – has been an elusive part of Queensland’s waste management plan.

While many councils have set up garden waste collection programs, Queensland is yet to have a permanent service that takes food scraps, despite a goal to have schemes for 1.6 million homes by 2030.

Brisbane City Council paused its FOGO trial in July 2024, instead rolling out garden waste bins for every house last year.

The trials, run by the SEQ Council of Mayors, will start at retirement villages run by IRT in Buderim and Currimundi on the Sunshine Coast, as well as a Peppers resort in Noosa and the Runaway Cove Meriton.

The trial, focused on multi-dwelling communities, will start at three Brisbane locations this year: the master-planned Alton Edition in Richlands, Gallery Apartments in Hamilton and Newstead Series Apartments.

The trials will vary between a year and 18 months, and are expected to divert 530 tonnes of waste from landfill.

Earthborn Organic Recycling and the Advanced Resource Recovery Centre will take care of the composting trials, while Urban Utilities would handle the biogas efforts.

Queensland has long been a laggard when it comes to organic recycling, says Johannes Biala, the director of the University of Queensland’s Centre for Recycling of Organic Waste and Nutrients.

NSW has legislated that all councils provide full FOGO services by 2030, while Melbourne councils have a four-bin system including FOGO. The habit is widespread in South Australia and WA.

Biala said neither side of Queensland politics had shown the will to get the FOGO ball rolling.

“[In] NSW they have been doing this pretty much consistently since 2000 or so, regardless of what government they had,” he said.

“Looking back at Queensland, there have always been promises, or ‘this is what we want to do,’ but there was never any funding or support.”

The former government established a $151 million program to help councils make the transition in 2023, of which $41,356,974 has been spent.

In a statement about the trial, Environment Minister Andrew Powell said the government was investing in limiting food headed to landfill.

“The goal is simple – keep more waste out of landfill, which helps drive down costs for councils,” he said.

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