Published on Friday, 20 September 2019 at 2:25:26 PM
One of the largest community education programs ever carried out in Perth’s Eastern Region will pave the way for the rollout of a three-bin FOGO (Food Organics Garden Organics) scheme, aimed at diverting thousands of tonnes of waste from landfill.
The Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council (EMRC), which manages waste on behalf of its six member Councils, last night voted unanimously to implement an extensive education, consultation and implementation program as part of its far-reaching FOGO strategy. A key part of the Strategy will be to encourage every resident in the region to think of food and garden waste as a valuable commodity.
EMRC Chairman Cr David McDonnell explained: ‘Around 55,000 tonnes of the general waste our region produces annually is food and organic waste that can easily be recovered. This material can be efficiently reprocessed into compost and other useful products.
‘If each household starts carefully separating food and organic waste, the resulting lower contamination levels means much more of this waste can be successfully recovered as a clean end product for re-use.
‘This will benefit the entire region by diverting this waste from landfill and using it to create useful products in commercial quantities, boosting the local economy.’
The EMRC will join forces with its member Councils to refine the Strategy in readiness for a staged rollout of the three-bin system, commencing with Bayswater and Bassendean in July 2020.
The EMRC’s new FOGO Recovery Strategy is fully aligned with the State Waste Strategy 2030, which has a target for all households in the Perth and Peel region to go FOGO by 2025.
EMRC CEO Marcus Geisler said: ‘Our Strategy embraces the concept of the Circular Economy, which aims to keep maximum levels of waste materials circulating in the economy for as long as possible, which also has the benefit of significantly reducing processing costs.
‘By convincing people of the benefits and bringing the community on board, everyone will have a chance to play their part in the FOGO revolution.’
The three-bin system will retain the familiar yellow-lidded recycling bin, while the dark green general waste bin will be replaced by a lighter green-lidded FOGO bin and a new red-lidded general waste bin.
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