Recent council waste audit showed that 99 percent of Kiama households have their food and garden organics sorted - unsurprisingly scoring top marks for our waste and recycling habits.

Believing there is always room for improvement, the NSW government has released new FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics) guidelines on 1 August 2024. 

Leading the change over a decade ago, Kiama Council takes the ranks as one of the first municipalities to introduce the FOGO initiative.

To prevent contamination from polyfluoroalkyls (PFAs) found in household items like paper towels, tea bags and tissues. Keeping our FOGO contamination-free ensures the processing and quality of our green waste compost is as efficient as possible. 

You can still put most of your old favourites in the green/FOGO bin:

• Fruit & vegetable scraps
• Meat and bones
• Seafood and shells
• Takeaway food and leftovers
• Pasta, bread, rice and cereal
• Loose leaf tea and coffee
• Eggs and dairy

But the following items now need to go into your red or yellow bins:

• Paper (yellow)
• Cardboard (yellow)
• Newspaper (yellow)
• Bamboo and compostable packaging (red)
• Paper towels and tissues (red)
• Tea bags (red)
• Vacuum dust (red)
• Pet poo and kitty litter (red)

For further information on the EPA guidelines: EPA Guidelines NSW 

Thank you to the Kiama community for doing your part in NSW’s FOGO journey!