Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO)

The Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) service is making your green lid bin even greener.

Starting from 30 June 2025, instead of putting your food scraps in the red lid bin, you’ll put it into the existing green lid bin so it can be recycled into valuable compost instead of being sent to landfill.

FOGO bins can include food scraps like meat, bones, seafood, fruit, vegetables, coffee grounds, tea leaves, and dairy plus garden waste like lawn clippings, leaves, small plants, and flowers. 

FOGO is required under NSW legislation.

FOGO has been the highest priority for local waste services across the State since the NSW Government mandated that all councils must provide a FOGO collection to reduce organic waste in landfill and boost recycling efforts by 2030.

Many councils have already introduced the service, and now it's our turn to FOGO! 

After considering four options to determine the frequency of the red lid bin collection as part of the FOGO roll out, Singleton councillors resolved at their first meeting of the year on Tuesday 18 February 2025 to introduce the service to all properties utilising the urban and rural split.

Rural properties move to a weekly green bin and fortnightly red and yellow bin collection.

Urban properties will move to a weekly green bin and fortnightly red and yellow bin collections but with the option to pay an increased domestic waste service charge for a weekly red bin collection.

Proposed annual costs for the urban and rural collections for 2025/2026 are $675 for the default fortnightly red bin collection, and $860 for the weekly opt-in red bin collection for urban residents. 

With the introduction of FOGO, both food and garden organics will now go into the green bin which will be collected weekly from 30 June 2025 for both urban and rural residents.

Our bin sizes will not change, but Council’s decision to give our urban households the choice in how often their red bin is collected by opting in for a weekly service will empower our residents to decide what suits their needs, how much they want to pay, and how they can reduce waste going into landfill by taking up new services.

BEFORE the FOGO service starts, every household across the Singleton LGA will receive a kitchen caddy, compostable bags, and an info pack – delivered to their doorstep – detailing what can go in your FOGO bin.

The bench-top caddy and liners are designed to make collecting food and kitchen waste easy. Residents just pop their food scraps into the caddy, tie off the supplied liner and pop it into their green lid bin for kerbside collection.

AFTER the service starts on 30 June 2025, you’ll use your green lid bin for both food and garden organics. 

According to the NSW Environment Protection Authority, FOGO will help to divert half a million tonnes of organics from landfills across the State every year, saving councils money on landfill fees and creating a nutrient-rich compost for use in landscaping and agriculture.

On average Singleton Council collects 6,000 tonnes of residual waste from the red bin annually. The most recent bin compositional audit conducted by Council indicated that food and kitchen waste accounted for a quarter of this waste.

By diverting organic waste from landfills, we reduce the harmful health and environmental impacts and maximise the space in our landfill, effectively extending its lifespan. The organics we collect are also transformed into high-quality compost, which completes the recycling loop – from bin to garden and back again.

FOGO helps keep more organic materials out of landfill, offering multiple health, safety, and environmental benefits.

More information about the FOGO service in Singleton, including delivery of a bench-top caddies and liners to make collecting food/kitchen waste easy, will begin to roll out to residents prior to 30 June 2025.

Also learn more here on the Your Organics Bin website.