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Well done Holdfast Bay - over half of all households are placing their food scraps in their green FOGO bin!
Additional rolls of 75 compostable bags can be collected from the Brighton Civic Centre and Brighton and Glenelg Libraries.
* Proof of residency required. One roll per household per calendar year. Additional rolls of 75 can be purchased at cost price for $4.80
A successful 12 month pilot project which started in March 2018 was funded by Green Industries SA. The pilot has had overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community with the model being replicated in other supermarkets outside the City of Holdfast Bay. Bin audits of kerbside green FOGO and landfill bins in close proximity to both stores were undertaken throughout the pilot and found an impressive 300% increase of food scraps being placed in organic bins with the use of compostable bags!
The pilot demonstrated that buying fresh produce in compostable bags for reuse to recycle food waste through the green bin:
✔ Reduces plastic consumption.
✔ Reduces greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the amount of food waste diverted from landfill.
✔ Assists in growing the circular economy by increasing the volume of organics processed at local facilities.
The compostable bags in the Supermarket Pilot Project won the 2019 Local Government Professionals SA Excellence Award in Environmental Leadership and Sustainability, receiving National-wide media attention.
Both Brighton Foodland and Glenelg South Romeo's have committed to keeping compostable produce bags in store for another 12 months.
Council contact information
If the property has never had an organics bin please call our Waste hotline on (08) 8295 5077 to set up a new service.
If the green FOGO bin was stolen please fill in the missing bin form. Kitchen caddies are available from the Brighton Civic Centre and Glenelg Library.
- Line the basket with one of the compostable bag liners.
- Place food scraps into the bag.
- Remove the bag as often as you like, tying a knot in the top (every 2 – 3 days).
- Place the bag into your green organics bin.
By diverting food waste from the garbage bin to the green organic bin we will:
- be closer to the target of diverting 70% of domestic kerbside waste away from landfill by 2020.
- reduce production of methane gas (a greenhouse gas with 25 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide).
- extend the life of landfill sites.
Compostable bags are suitable for disposing of food waste to the organics bin. Compostable bags have been manufactured so that they are not toxic and will break down within weeks in the composting process.
Don't be confused by the terms biodegradable or degradable. These bags need to go into your red bin. Degradable bags are still made of plastic and take a very long time to degrade. Biodegradable bags can be degraded by micro-organisms and fungi however this can still take months and years to occur.
Contents in the green FOGO bin are collected by Solo and taken to Peats Soil and Garden Supplies, where the food scraps and garden organics are placed into large compost heaps. Once the materials break down and are processed they are then turned into nutrient rich fertilizer.
Bagging or wrapping (in newspaper) your food scraps and mixing them in with your garden clippings significantly reduces the smell. If you are still worried, consider freezing meat and seafood until your collection day.
What's good to go?
Food waste can be placed into the green FOGO organics bin along with other organic material like grass clippings and garden .
All food scraps are good to go:
- Fruit and vegetables including citrus
- Meat
- Bones
- Dairy
- Seafood
- Egg shells
- Teabags, tea leaves and coffee grounds
- Breads and cake
You can also include:
- Tissues
- Paper towel
- Hair
Only COMPOSTABLE bags can be used in the green organics bin.