No bin liners or food packaging for the green bin – not even compostable ones!

Last month we started a series on what NOT to put in the FOGO bin – that’s the green bin which now takes a whole range of food items that can’t go into your compost or worm farms, as well as food that can.

Moving on from our first item last month – those small, round, glossy stickers on fruit and vegies which are not compostable – let’s take a look at 2 more items that are far too often getting into the FOGO bin, causing contamination and resulting in loads of otherwise good compostable material having to go to landfill.

This month we’ll focus on bin liners and food packaging – even compostable ones. No bin liner or food packaging should go into the FOGO bin – EVER!

Manufacturers claims that bin liners or food packages are compostable are without context. It depends on the composting process. Is it a fast or slow process? How long would you need to wait for the entire liner or package to completely break down? Councils are involved in fast compost making. Councils can hardly allow the incredible mountains of compost Banyule produces to sit around for several years awaiting the breakdown of bin liners and food packaging. That would cost Council and therefore us, the rate payers, a fortune. Contamination, as mentioned last month, results in Councils paying out heavy penalties.

So let’s all support FOGO by being mindful of what we put in the green bin. Definitely no bin liners or food packaging!

Written by Robin Gale-Baker