Yes, if your business does not produce domestic food or garden organic waste, for example food scraps from a staff lunchroom and garden, tree or plant waste. Commercial properties can opt out of receiving waste collection services from Council. Please note that if you choose to opt out of receiving a FOGO bin, you will not receive a reduction in your kerbside waste rate.

Commercial properties who wish to opt out of receiving a FOGO bin and service should lodge a bin retrieval request by clicking here or contact Council.

In accordance with the Victorian Government's Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021, councils are required to provide a four-stream waste service to all residents. If you can house the 120L FOGO bin on your property, then you are required to have it.

If you are unable to fit an additional bin on your property you can contact us to discuss your situation and we will try to find a solution. Customers should lodge a request online as 'Report an unwanted bin for retrieval' by clicking here. Our Waste team will be in contact with you to advise next steps of the process. Council will only approve these requests if evidence is provided that residents will not be placing FOGO in their waste/other bins.

FOGO bins will be delivered to properties that receive a Council kerbside collection service between 1 April and 30 June 2024, the bins will feature a sticker with the property address. Collections will not commence until 1 July 2024.

You will receive a letter in your letterbox explaining the service, how it works and what items can and cannot be placed into your new FOGO bin. We encourage you to hold onto this information so that you can reference it in future.

If you cannot locate this information you can find everything on our website here: www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/fogo . If you would like to be provided a hardcopy or digital copy of the brochure and letter from Yarra's Mayor, you can pick up a copy from our service sites.

From 1 July Yarra’s green waste service will be replaced by the introduction of Council’s food and garden organics (FOGO) collection service. If you have previously purchased a large lime green-lidded bin for your green waste collections from Council, this will automatically become your FOGO bin.

Unlike the current green waste collection guidelines, from 1 July all materials for collection must fit inside your FOGO bin with the lid closed. We will not collect bundled branches or any other green waste items placed next to or on top of your FOGO bin.

The cost of providing all kerbside waste collection services is included in the Kerbside Waste Rate listed on your annual rates notice.

While the kerbside waste rate is expected to increase in the first year due to the cost of introducing the service, over the long-term Council will work hard towards diverting material from landfill which hopefully will reduce costs for everyone.

Compostable liners are not accepted in the food and garden organics bin. There are better outcomes for keeping food and garden organic (FOGO) materials in circulation when these bags are not used. Reasons are as follows:

• There are many different types of ‘compostable’ bags on the market. It is difficult for consumers and for staff on the sorting line to identify 'compostable' bags from non-compostable ones.
• The bags remain intact on the sorting line, and may conceal contamination, which compromises the end-product – mulch and compost.
• Different bags break down at different rates, which can disrupt the processing of the material inside.
• If a knot is tied in the bag, the knot will take a long time to break down – sometimes more than a year.

If you have a private service, you will not receive a Yarra FOGO bin. If you do not have a private FOGO service, we encourage you to contact your owners’ corporation or building managers to explore options for a private FOGO service.

Alternatively, some community gardens and neighbourhood houses invite residents to drop off food waste for community composting. Yarra residents can also drop off food waste to our Clifton Hill Recycling Centre from 1 July 2024. 

Before your FOGO bin is emptied on collection day, our staff will do a visual check of the contents of each bin. If there are non-accepted materials in your bin, it's deemed as contaminated and will not be emptied.

We will place a sticker on your bin to explain why it was not emptied and identify what you need to remove before collection can take place. The sticker also has instructions on how to request collection after the bin is decontaminated.   

When the lid of your FOGO is completely closed it should not attract pests or produce any significant smell. You can also also:

• layer your food with green waste, newspaper or paper towel
• put meat and seafood in the freezer until the night before collection
• sprinkle contents with baking soda
• rinse your bin with natural detergent after collection.