BY JEM ANSHAW
FOGO has been a heated topic of conversation in the Muswellbrook community in the lead up to its implementation from July 1.
The Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) initiative is being rolled out statewide and Muswellbrook Shire is the next local government area to bring it into practice, something that has been met with mixed feedback from the community.
“People have some fear, and they’re afraid about the red bin changing to a fortnightly collection but once we have a conversation about how you’re recycling so far, what’s going in your bin people start to think about the behaviours that they have, for the most part people are saying this isn’t actually going to be as hard as I think,” Joann Polsen, Council’s manager of waste operations shared.
“Generally once we’ve had those conversations they realized that it’s not the end of the world and it is doable. Some people are going to have more challenges than others but for those people, council is ready to help.”
From July household red lidded bins will drop back to fortnightly collection, in alternating weeks with the yellow recyclables bin.
The household green bins will be collected weekly with food and garden waste permissible. This includes meat, bones, bread and any plate scapings that would previously have ended up in the red bin.
A waste survey conducted by council has identified that on average 37 per cent of what is currently put into red bins each fortnight will be able to be placed in the FOGO bags, making for more space in the general waste collection that will happen fortnightly.
Council have been hearing concerns from the community about households not being able to manage with a fortnightly general waste collection once it is put into place and an Extraordinary Council Meeting was held last week to address some of these concerns.
Councillors resolved to make available on application additional or larger red bins for households that require it, with Cr Jeff Drayton putting forward a motion to do this at no charge for a period of 12 months.
“The councillors have asked us to put together a protocol to determine the assessment that will take place in relation to people making application for either an additional red bin or upsizing their red bin,” general Manager Derek Finigan explained.
“Our councillors and staff are sympathetic to those families who will need the second red bin or the larger red bin and that is actually in place at the moment… the difference in the councillors resolution was that it would be provided for a trial period of 12 months at no charge.”
Cr Drayton’s explanation of this, which was reiterated by councillor De-anne Douglas who seconded the motion, was that it would give households time to adjust their habits and at the end of the 12-month trial period they would no longer need the larger capacity for general waste disposal.
