Melton council is reminding residents they can free up space in their red bin and help reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by putting food scraps into their green bin.
Known as the ‘Food Organics, Garden Organics (FOGO)’ service, 50,000 properties in the Melton municipality have a green bin, meaning they can send their food and garden scraps to compost rather than landfill.
Despite this, an audit conducted in 2022 showed that over 50 per cent of the red landfill bins contain food waste that could instead go into the green FOGO bin.
To dispose of food scraps in the green bin, residents can place loose (not bagged) scraps into their kitchen benchtop caddy or straight into their green bin. Instead of using plastic or compostable bags which cannot be processed with the compost material, bins can be lined with newspaper, paper towel, or garden clippings.
Fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, meat, bones, offcuts and leftovers are all accepted into the green bin. This is in addition to the already accepted garden waste such as grass clippings, small branches and weeds.
Melton mayor Lara Carli encouraged residents to use their green bin for food scraps or to order a green bin if needed.
“Diverting household food scraps from landfill significantly reduces the amount of waste we send to landfill,” she said.
“Simply throwing our food scraps and garden clippings into the green bin is an easy step towards a greener future.
“We’re not only reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating compost, we’re also reducing what goes into your red bin and landfill.”
