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Another step has been taken by Central Coast Council towards implementing a local FOGO or Food Organics and Garden Organics waste program.
By Jacquelene Pearson
Adminstrator Rik Hart said he was pleased to adopt a staff recommendation to endorse progressing to a feasibility and business case for the development of a FOGO solution for Central Coast households.
The resolution came with a qualifier that the council would require “all alternative approaches and considerations associated with delivering FOGO collections” would be assessed and duly considered in future phases of the development and delivery of a local FOGO solution.
Those approaches and considerations were set out in a Directions Paper dated December 2022.
A report and presentation to the February 28 meeting of Central Coast Council said FOGO was a solid waste resource recovery service that allowed food to be added to the green lid garden waste bin to be collected and processed into compost.
It has been identified by CC Council andmandated by the NSW Government to deliver improvements to household waste management, resource recovery and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Council already has an existing well established and successful Garden Organics (GO) collection and processing solution,” said the report to council, prepared by the Infrastructure Services directorate.
“Investigations and planning are progressing to transition to a FOGO service which, due to the food wastes component and more stringent processing requirements, will require significant investment and infrastructure to deliver,” the report said.
“It has been recommended that In-vessel composting technology located at the Buttonderry Waste management facility, procured through a public-private partnership, represents the best option.
“This option delivers on Council’s strategy for resource recovery and emissions reduction, while managing environmental and commercial risks through the use of mature, controlled processing technology with a track record of reference projects in Australia and globally.”
According to the staff report, the separate collection of FOGO is a waste and resource management service that can reduce Greenhouse gas emissions from landfill and can replenish and improve soils.
The introduction of a FOGO service for Central Coast households and planning for a large-scale organics processing solution was a commitment made by the elected councillors in 2020 as part of their Resource Management Strategy 2020-2030.
It was noted at that time that 59 per cent of the local kerbside waste stream was organic including food and other organic material.
The NSW Government released the NSW Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy Stage 1 Plan: 2021-2027 in June 2021 that included the target to halve the amount of organics waste sent to landfill by 2030 and achieve zero emissions from organics waste by 2030.
“To achieve these targets the NSW Strategy requires the separate collection of food and garden organics from NSW households by 2030,” the staff report said.
In 2022 the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) released a position statement to specify what materials were permitted in the FOGO bin to meet legislative requirements, maintain the quality of composted produces, protect recycling markets, and protect human health.
Council already provides a garden organics solution via the green lid bin and a bulk garden organics collection service.
A garden organics receival and processing service is available through local waste management facilities and resulting garden organics are composted using an open windrow process at Buttonderry.
“The facility produces high quality compost products which comply with the relevant statutory requirements and Australian standards suitable for use across a range of retail, commercial and agricultural uses.
“These products are marketed and sold through Councils current contractor, Australian Native Landscapes Pty Ltd,” the staff report said.
The existing processing facility can’t process FOGO due to “constraints with existing landuse planning approvals, EPA licence requirements, end of life infrastructure, and the existing processing method and technology not being suitable to process food waste to appropriate standards and high-level end uses”.
FOGO is expected to double current garden organics tonnages and, combined with more complex processing technologies, “significant infrastructure investment will be required to be developed at a purpose-built facility”.
“There is currently no known FOGO processing capacity existing within the broader Sydney metropolitan/Central Coast/Hunter region able to manage the required volumes.
“A commercially available facility is unlikely to be constructed without the support of underpinning long-term contacts from individual Councils.
“More broadly, significant processing capacity will need to be constructed across NSW and an expansion of end uses of FOGO processing outputs and available market offtakes will need to be quickly developed in coming years if the NSW Government targets are to be met.”
The Point understands that in 2020 Central Coast Council was close to finalising arrangements with neighbouring councils to start work on its own FOGO processing facility on council-owned land at Warnervale but those plans were not advanced when the council was placed under administration.
“This report acknowledges the requirement to increase processing capacity and by constructing it’s own facility, Council will reduce its exposure to the shortfall in current processing capacity.
“The subsequent phases recommended in this report include a detailed review of the markets and opportunities to utilise existing offtake pathways and also include the development of new opportunities including increased reuse across Council’s extensive reserves and parklands.”
A further detailed report on the feasibility and business case findings will be provided for Council’s consideration prior to a tender process.
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