Food Organics & Garden Organics (FOGO)
Port Pirie Regional Council is excited to be introducing food waste recycling to all residents.
Your existing green-lid garden organics bin will become a food organics and garden organics (FOGO) bin.
Councils around SA and Australia are introducing FOGO and it is a significant action that residents and Council can take to reduce our community’s environmental impact.
From 4 March 2024 your kerbside bin collection service will change to:
- The green-lid FOGO bin collected weekly.
- The red-lid landfill bin collected fortnightly.
- The yellow-lid comingled recycling bin collected fortnightly.
Want to know more:
Read our Media release, Information Booklet and Kerbside Collection Calendar
Community Information:
Port Pirie Markets - Sunday 11th February, 8:30am - 12:00pm at Memorial Park
Coffee, Compost & Conversations:
Tuesday 20th February, 4:00pm - 6:30pm at the Port Pirie Library
Thursday 22nd February, 4:00pm - 6:30pm at Crystal Brook Council Office Meeting Room
Tuesday 5th March, 4:00pm - 6:30pm at the Port Pirie Library
Video Library
Please see the Frequently Asked Questions below for some helpful videos from our Elected Members and KESAB.
More videos can be found here:
FOGO Community Information Sessions
FOGO Facts - Nappies, Pet Waste & Noxious Weeds
FOGO Organics in the Green Bin
Which Bin Challenge - Find out which items go in each kerbside bin
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
After reading our FAQs below, if you have further questions, please call (08) 8633 9720 or email fogo@pirie.sa.gov.au
FOGO stands for ‘Food Organics and Garden Organics’ and it is the green-lid bin at home. Anything that grows or once grew belongs in the green-lid FOGO bin, most importantly food!
Material placed in the green-lid FOGO bin is collected and taken to Peats Soils where it is turned into compost.
Introducing weekly FOGO and changing to fortnightly landfill collections has significant benefits. This includes:
- Increasing food recycling rates.
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by stopping food going to landfill.
- Reducing smell from the green FOGO bins, by collecting food and garden organics every week.
- Helping to grow the circular economy by turning FOGO into compost to help grow our food.
Providing a weekly FOGO service and a fortnightly landfill service encourages the community to place more food waste in their FOGO bin where it belongs.
View our video about FOGO benefits with Cr Joby Connor and Sarah from KESAB
Anything that grows or once grew belongs in the green-lid FOGO bin, including:
- all food waste (including meat, fish, bones, dairy/eggs, fruit, vegetables, bread, tea bags and coffee grounds)
- soiled paper products (shredded paper, paper towel, tissues, and pizza boxes)
- Australian certified compostable packaging (AS4736 or AS5810)
- all garden organics (e.g. prunings and grass clippings).
Recent kerbside audits revealed that 44% of the red-lid landfill bin is food and garden material and another 17% can go into the comingled recycling bin.
Correctly sorting your waste and recycling will allow you to make the most of your fortnightly landfill collection.
See the Audit Summary Here
Some products including nappies and other hygiene products cannot be recycled or turned into compost and still must be put into your landfill bin.
A nappy trial undertaken in Lake Macquarie City Council found that the average odour of a landfill bin with nappy waste for a week was approximately the same as the average odour rating of a nappy bin at the end of the fortnight. The number of nappies in the bin also did not have a significant effect on the odour rating of the bin.
Wrapping soiled nappies in at least one nappy bag and keeping the bin out of the sun both help in managing odours.
If your property has never had a green-lid wheelie bin, please call Council on 8633 9720 to set up a new service.
View our video about what to do if you don't have a green-lid bin
Download the collection calendar to find out which day your bin is collected.
All areas outside the collection day maps will be collected as follows:
Green Tuesday (weekly) and Recycling and Red alternate Wednesday (fortnightly)
You can also download the My Local Services App to view the Collection Calendar, get bin collection reminders, waste reduction and recycling tips and other helpful links and information.
Coles, Woolworths and some Foodland stores have compostable bags in the fruit and vegetable section that fit perfectly in your kitchen caddy. You can purchase your fruit and vegetables and then use these bags to collect your food scraps.
Additional rolls of compostable bags can be purchased from Council at cost price. Visit the Port Pirie Council Office or Crystal Brook Library and Council Services office.
We understand that weekly FOGO and fortnightly landfill collections may not suit everyone. If you need additional bin capacity, please contact Council to arrange an additional bin for a service charge. Council may grant exemptions to the service fee and provide an additional bin at no cost. Please contact us to discuss this.
To help you transition to weekly FOGO and fortnightly red-lid landfill residents can take the equivalent volume of a 140-litre bin per week to the Port Pirie Transfer Station for free disposal. This is open to residents only (not businesses) until the end of March 2024.
If you need to request new bins, please use our Customer Request Form.
(The correct categories to use are either 'Bin Request - Residential' or 'Bin Request - Commercial)