Get ready to start FOGOing, as Wollongong residents prepare for a shake-up to their household bin system.
Green-lidded bins will no longer be limited to garden waste, with residents across the Wollongong LGA able to include food and organic waste in their collections from November.
Council will introduce a weekly FOGO - or Food Organics Garden Organics - collection to all households that currently have a green-lidded garden waste bin.
Longer term they are also considering the introduction of a FOGO trial for multi-unit dwellings which don't currently have a green-lidded waste bin.
Wollongong Greens councillor Cath Blakey was pleased councillors supported the move at Monday night's meeting.
"It's been about 20 months since we put the motion before council about doing a trial for FOGO," Cr Blakey said.
"It's going to be a really ambitious rollout, with hoping to go across most of the households that have a green bin, so most of the LGA, in three weeks.
"That's going to be pretty rapid, but it's great that it's going to be available to everybody so quickly.
"There was feedback from the trial (from some) that they didn't want a fortnightly FOGO service, and in the trial it was fortnightly.
"So that's an extra cost to council, having the bin service collected weekly. But with the diversion you get it's worth it, and if people are putting their green bin out weekly than any food that's in there is getting collected promptly and can be composted before it goes too mucky."
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the FOGO trial carried out last year in Austinmer, Cordeaux Heights and Warrawong was "really positive with great feedback from participants, very low contamination rates and produced high-quality compost and soil products".
According to council, FOGO is not an opt-in service, but will simply be a changeover from the current fortnightly garden organics service to a weekly food organics and garden organics service from November.
Red and yellow-lidded bins will continue to be picked up as normal.
From November, all households that currently have a green-lidded waste bin will have an information pack delivered to their door, along with a kitchen bench caddy and compostable liners which will make taking the food waste from the house to the bin easier.
Once households receive their caddy they can start FOGOing, with weekly collection starting the following week.
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