The ACT’s Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection pilot is being expanded into more than 1150 additional households within multi-unit developments in Belconnen and Tuggeranong.

Introduced in November 2021, the FOGO pilot has been providing a weekly collection of food scraps and garden waste for about 5300 households in Belconnen, Bruce, Cook and Macquarie.

The ACT Government says that next month the FOGO pilot will be expanded to include an additional 772 households in Belconnen and 400 households in Tuggeranong – all within multi-unit developments.

Roughly one-third of items put into household rubbish bins in the ACT is food. This is equal to about 26,000 tonnes of food waste going to landfill each year.

The government says that since the implementation of the FOGO pilot through until June 2024, the initiative has diverted 3475 tonnes of food and garden waste from landfill and turned this material into valuable compost.

Participating households will be formally notified of their involvement via a letter and information sessions over the coming weeks.

Participating households will receive an easy-to-use kitchen caddy with compostable liner bags for food scraps, along with a light green lidded FOGO bin within their shared waste enclosures. There will be no changes to regular bin collections within the expansion areas. ­