Castlemaine Yimby pushes back on council Fogo rollout
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- Yimby Castlemaine, formed in 2020, now has more than 50 volunteer composters collecting from over 650 households and estimates it has processed roughly 50,000 buckets of organic material.
- Mount Alexander shire council announced in 2025 it would roll out a Fogo kerbside bin; Yimby responded with a petition of more than 1,000 signatures urging the council to 'Go slow on Fogo' and gather data first.
- The Victorian government has mandated that every household sort waste into four streams — general rubbish, mixed recycling, glass and Fogo — from 1 July 2027.
- Dr Robert Crocker, senior lecturer at Adelaide University's School of Architecture and Built Environment, said landfill is expensive to maintain responsibly while Fogo material can be sold on as compost 'back to the community.'
- Australians generate roughly 14.6 million tonnes of organic waste annually, of which about 62% is already diverted from landfill into mulch or compost, per the article's figures.
- Lucy Young of Yimby Castlemaine argued Fogo may suit 'highly urbanised settings where the density of housing excludes access to land,' but said local decision-making 'could be more collaborative.'
Why it matters: Mount Alexander shire is weighing a standardised Fogo kerbside rollout against Yimby's 1,000-signature petition and 50,000-bucket volunteer track record — a decision that tests whether Victoria's 1 July 2027 mandate leaves room for community-designed organics systems in place of the default four-bin model.
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