Make Your Christmas More Sustainable With These FOGO Tips

The festive season is a time of celebration, joy, and delicious meals with family and friends. But with all the extra cooking, there’s bound to be more food waste than usual. Thankfully, if you have access to FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics) your food scraps and garden waste are turned into nutrient-rich compost instead of ending up in landfill. With just a few simple steps, you can FOGO like a pro minimising your waste and impact on the planet this Christmas.

Here’s how to manage your organic waste and keep your FOGO bin in tip-top shape this summer.

What Can Go in Your FOGO Bin This Holiday Season?

During Christmas, the types of waste change, but the FOGO bin can handle a surprising amount. Here’s a quick festive checklist for what belongs in your FOGO bin:

Fruit and vegetable scraps (peels and rind, nutshells, corn cobs, uneaten leftovers, fruit and vegetables).

Meat, seafood, and poultry scraps (freeze these until bin night to avoid odours).

Eggshells, coffee grounds, and plastic-free tea bags

Bread, pasta, rice, and leftover baked goods

Garden clippings, leaves, wilted flowers, sticks and twigs and pine needles

Other organic material (hair, nails, pet fur and pet bedding)

Certified home and industrially compostable packaging (make sure to check for logos on products)

Always look for certified home or industrially compostable logos on the packaging before placing it in FOGO. Currently, 164 councils around Australia have FOGO bins. However, only 43 accept compostable packaging in their residential compost collections. Check this guide and make sure to also check your council’s guidelines for the latest information about items that can or cannot go into your FOGO bin.

Tips for Managing Your FOGO Bin During Summer

1. Keep Your Bin Odour-Free

Warmer temperatures can lead to unpleasant odours. Here’s how to keep your FOGO bin fresh:

Freeze meat, poultry, and seafood scraps until collection day to minimise smells.
Layer your waste alternating between food scraps (nitrogen-rich) and dry garden waste like leaves or shredded paper (carbon-rich) to balance moisture.
Sprinkle baking soda on your food waste to absorb odours.

2. Stay Pest-Free

Seal your bin tightly always closing your bin lid completely to deter pests.
Use council-approved certified compostable liners and tie them tightly to keep flies out.

3. Keep Your Bin Cool

Find a shady spot and place your bin in a well-ventilated, sheltered area to prevent overheating and odours.
Rinse your bin regularly with water and a dash of vinegar or lemon juice to keep it clean.

4. Don’t Let It Sit

Put your bin out weekly for collection, even if it’s not full. Food waste breaks down quickly in summer, and regular emptying helps avoid odour build-up.

Check your council’s collection schedule during the holidays to stay on top of pick-up days and avoid missing a collection.

Why Use Your FOGO Bin?

1. Reduce Landfill Waste

By placing organic waste in your FOGO instead of the red bin, you’re reducing the amount of rubbish that ends up in landfill, where it releases harmful methane gas. FOGO minimises our reliance on landfill by transforming your waste into compost, a nutrient-rich resource.

2. Advance the Circular Economy

The circular economy is a system designed to eliminate waste and regenerate nature. It keeps products and materials in use for as long as possible through practices such as maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, recycling, and composting. Your organic waste is a valuable resource, which is processed and turned into compost that can nourish new crops and plants. It’s a perfect example of a circular system where nothing is wasted, and everything has a new purpose.

3. Support Farmers and Healthy Soils

The compost made from your food scraps and garden clippings is used by farmers, gardeners, and landscapers. Compost is a natural fertiliser and helps reduce the need for chemical alternatives. It also adds valuable nutrients to the soil improving its health, which in turn promotes higher yields of agricultural crops. Healthy soils rich in organic matter can retain more water helping reduce the need to water the crop.

Don’t Have Access to FOGO? Compost at Home.

Read our Composting for Beginners guide, where we break down the benefits of composting, what you can compost, and tips to compost at home so you can turn your food waste into nutrient-rich fertiliser.

Button: Composting for Beginners guide

Make This Holiday Season Count

This Christmas, make a difference by taking simple steps to manage your food waste. By doing so, you’ll contribute to better waste management, healthier soils, and a more sustainable circular future. Every scrap diverted from landfill helps protect our environment.