Food and Green Waste

Over a third of all waste collected in our shire's general rubbish (red lid) bins is household food waste. Food waste put in the red lin bin ends up in landfill – and it doesn't need to.

With careful planning you can reduce food waste and reuse leftovers before recycling.  The Great Unwaste is a program run by End Food Waste Australia, which provides information on efficiently planning meals and understanding how to safely store and use leftovers.  

Using backyard chickens, worm farms, compost or bokashi bins at home is a quick and easy way to help reduce this amount of kitchen food scraps going to landfill. Worm juice and castings are super rich in nutrients and will boost the health of your garden.  Planning meals around what’s in the fridge (rather than buying new ingredients for a recipe) can also help use up older vegies and reduce food waste.

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Composting Garden Mulch

Mulching green waste at home is another easy way to reduce waste while improving the soils in your garden. Home-composted green waste also increases soil moisture and reduce weeds by smothering them. Simply shred or chop leaves, grass clippings and twigs into small pieces and spread evenly over the ground. Over time it will decompose and nourish the soil.

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Composting Pet Poo

• DO – Bury it in a hole in your garden.
• DO – Put it in a pet poo compost bin or bokashi bin.
• DO – Wrap it in newspaper and put in your general rubbish (red lid) bin.
• DON’T – Put in the garden organics (green lid) bin!

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What goes in my garden organics bin?

Find out what goes in your garden organics (Green Lid) bin.

See our A-Z Waste – Where to Next? interactive online guide for detailed advice on where items should go.

NOT in Green Waste: Branches and tree stumps (≥ 30cm diameter), painted or treated wood, paper or cardboard, pallets, weeds, plastic bags or pots, contaminated garden waste, kitty litter, pet manure.

Mallacoota Kitchen to Compost Program

The Mallacoota Kitchen to Compost program began in 2010 to reduce organic waste going to landfill by collecting food and garden waste and composting it locally.

It is an important collaboration between Council, Gippsland Regional Waste Management Group and the Mallacoota community.

Benefits include:  

• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions (particularly methane) that are produced by organic waste decomposing in landfill.
• Reduced pressure on landfill capacity by removing organics from the waste stream, which extends the life of landfill and can lead to long-term cost savings.
• Nutrient-rich compost created from organic waste can be used in parks and gardens and landfill rehabilitation, to improve soil structure, retain more water and improve soil health.
• For those already composting at home, this service accepts harder-to-compost items that the worms won’t touch – meat, seafood, bones, citrus, cooked food, oils and fats, diseased plants, weeds, excess lawn clippings and leaves.

Kitchen to Compost accepts:

• Kitchen scraps – fruit and vegetables, meat and bones, fish and seafood (plus shells), dairy, pasta and rice, bread and pastries, teabags and coffee grounds
• Garden waste – lawn clippings, pruning, weeds, rose trimmings, twigs and branches (<75mm diameter)
• Other – Tissues and paper towels, hair.

NOT ACCEPTED

• Synthetic products such as plastics, flowerpots, hoses, nappies and non-compostable plastic bags.
• Industrial compostable bags.
• Kitty litter and pet waste.
• Vacuum dust or lint.

Kitchen to Compost tips:

• Line your kitchen caddy with paper towel or a small folded piece of newspaper.  
• Collect food scraps in your kitchen caddy. Empty into your garden organics (green lid) bin.  
• Put bin out fortnightly for collection (alternate weeks to mixed recycling (yellow lid) bin).
• Caddies – available for free at Mallacoota Service Centre.
• Bin liners – only use certified compostable liners with the home compostable logo  

Please DON’T USE plastic bin liners as this contaminates the compost with microplastics.

• New garden organics bins - see Bin Services

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Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) Program

Weekly FOGO Collection

Council will be introducing its new Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) weekly kerbside bin collections progressively during 2028. This will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by diverting organic waste from landfill. Click here to view implementation timeframes.

Bairnsdale FOGO Composting Facility

Our proposed Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) Composting Facility will embody circular economy principles – turning waste into value and closing the loop between urban and rural systems.  

Located next to Bairnsdale Landfill in Forge Creek, the facility will be able to process up to 25,000 tonnes of food and garden organics each year, with the potential to reduce future landfill emissions by up to 97%.