Castlemaine composters push back on Fogo bin rollout
SkimNews Take
A state-mandated bin can crowd out a functioning grassroots network simply by becoming the default channel for household organics, regardless of which system actually diverts more waste.
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- Australians generate about 14.6 million tonnes of organic waste a year, with roughly half collected from household kerbside bins, and about 62% is already diverted from landfill into mulch or compost, according to the report.
- Yimby Castlemaine, a volunteer group formed in 2020, has grown to more than 50 composters serving over 650 households, swapping and weighing roughly 50,000 buckets of organic material for local composting.
- Mount Alexander Shire Council announced in 2025 it would introduce a Fogo (food organics and garden organics) kerbside bin, prompting Yimby to deliver a petition with over 1,000 signatures urging the council to "go slow on Fogo" and gather data first.
- Victorian state government has mandated that every household separate waste into four streams — general rubbish, mixed recycling, glass, and Fogo — from 1 July 2027, the council said.
- Dr Robert Crocker, a senior lecturer at Adelaide University's School of Architecture and Built Environment, says Fogo is valuable because, unlike landfill, the compost can be sold back to the community.
- Organic waste in landfill produces methane, a greenhouse gas far more powerful than carbon dioxide, which is why councils across Australia are seeking to divert it from general waste streams.
Why it matters: The Castlemaine fight is a small-scale test for Victoria's July 2027 four-bin mandate: a community that has already run roughly 50,000 composting buckets through volunteers wants Mount Alexander Shire to weigh that bespoke network before duplicating it with a kerbside Fogo scheme, and the council's response at its next meeting will set the precedent for whether grassroots organics recycling can coexist with the statewide rollout.
