Published on Friday, 28 June 2024 at 2:31:21 PM
A Council endorsed trial to investigate community interest in reducing organic waste going to landfill is coming to end.
The trial commenced in 2020 after waste modelling suggested up to 40% of rubbish in residents’ bins was organic.
The City of Greater Geraldton conducted the Food Organic Garden Organic (FOGO) trial to determine the actual level of household interest in waste separation and the overall costs involved with the kerbside collection of FOGO waste.
The trial’s combined results of low participation rates with high bin contamination rates have resulted in Council’s decision to conclude the FOGO trial.
City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Jerry Clune thanked community members for taking part in the trial and providing Council with valuable insight regarding organic waste separation.
“On behalf of Council I would like to thank the 500 households from across the City who were part of the trial and especially those who diligently separated FOGO waste from their general rubbish and presented their bins for collection every week,” he said.
“However, all trials eventually come to an end and the results reveal the desire to, and actual practice of, reducing waste didn’t align.
“Data collected revealed there was a lower than anticipated level of household interest to separate organic waste and higher than expected costs associated with a two-bin kerbside FOGO waste collection service.”
Trial results showed that although some participants transitioned easily to the two bin system, on average, over the trial period only 58% put their FOGO bins out for collection every week.
High contamination rates, 18% on average, much higher than the required 4-6%, which only improved short term when bin audits and bin tagging was undertaken, resulted in significantly increased costs in sorting and preparing the waste for processing.
The development of Australian Standard compost from FOGO waste, which would have offset some of the costs, also proved problematic. As the City does not have access to screening, plant and equipment or other composting products required to make compliant compost, the material had to be transported to a dedicated facility nearly 350kms away.
Mayor Clune said the trial outcome was not what the City and Council had hoped for.
“We went into the trial with high expectations that this would be right for our community, but unfortunately, we didn’t get the outcome we anticipated,” he said.
“It’s disappointing, but the City can now to look at other opportunities and ways to recycle and divert waste from landfill.”
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