Fair go: Don’t dump rubbish and medical waste in your FOGO

Published on 28 February 2022

Council is once again asking residents in the greater Cooma area to do the right thing with their green-lidded FOGO bins, following another spike in rubbish and medical waste being discovered in recent kerbside collections.

Green bins – known as Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) bins – are ONLY for waste that comes from a plant or animal based material in a natural state.

Green waste delivered to Cooma Landfill from these bins is sorted manually by our hardworking waste operation workers before being transferred to the composting rows at the compost facility.

As was the case on multiple occasions last year, a small number of people in the community are disposing of biohazardous medical waste (including COVID tests), nappies and regular garbage – and thereby jeopardising this important process for the rest of us. This waste is not FOGO waste.

The compost facility at Cooma Landfill is a vital part of our Council’s waste program, reducing the amount of recoverable waste that goes into landfill, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and supporting the community through access to low-cost, high-quality compost produced locally.

ONLY the following types of waste are OK in the FOGO bin (lime-green lid):

• Food scraps (including cooked meat and bones)

• Garden waste (including untreated wood no larger than kindling)

• Paper towel and serviettes (due to COVID-19 please place your used tissues in the red bin)

• Even greasy pizza boxes!

Council’s waste operations team members must remove any contaminants by hand, putting them at great risk when dangerous items are mixed in. It’s risky, it wastes time, it wastes your ratepayer money, and it’s bad for the environment and climate. So please, save your rubbish for the red bin.

For more information on waste, recycling, FOGO and tricky waste in the Snowy Monaro visit: https://www.snowymonaro.nsw.gov.au/Environment-and-Waste/Waste-and-Recycling