Parramatta residents can expect major changes to their future waste kerbside collection services by November 2024.
In two years’ time, Parramatta locals will be able to put their food organic waste in a 240L green-lidded bin, as part of the Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) system that’s being rolled out across the council area.
Allowing food to be added to the green-lidded garden waste bin and sorted manually, the FOGO bins help to reduce the organic material going into landfill from the red-lidded bin.
The waste is then turned into compost and returned to the community to be used in local parks, gardens, sports fields and onto farmlands.
Parramatta will join 43 other councils in NSW, including Blacktown and Penrith, who have adopted the new way to dispose of household waste.
Alongside FOGO, residents can also expect a reduction in the size of their red-lidded general waste bin to an 80L bin collected weekly, with the option to apply for a 140L bin at an additional fee. The 240L recycling bin will be collected fortnightly.
The waste changes come after a recent City of Parramatta council meeting saw majority of councillors vote in favour of the motion.
Cr Cameron Maclean, who raised the motion, said it is a “good and necessary change for a city like ours”.
“This solution drives behavioural change and I think a lot of people in the community have recognised this is where we’re going – people do actually have an interest in the environment and their local area in a way they seldom did before,” he said.
Cr Kellie Darley also supported the motion and said it will be a “significant change” to Parramatta’s waste services.
“It’s the biggest change in kerbside collection in decades, and a very exciting one,” she said.
Although concerns were raised over the smaller 80L general waste bin, Cr Darley said it wouldn’t be a “downgrade”.
“It’s moving 50 per cent of our waste from our red bins to our FOGO [bins] that’s going to be picked up on a weekly basis, so this isn’t a reduction,” she said.
“This won’t be something where we wake up and have a different bin outside, this is a significant education program, every household will get a caddy [and] they’ll be getting bags to put food waste into.”
The decision follows the Food Organics (FO) collection trial for multi-unit dwellings (MUDs) that ran from July 2021 to April 2022. The trial was delivered across Westmead, North Parramatta, Harris Park, and Eastwood, resulting in the diversion of 36 tonnes of food waste from landfill.
The report of the trial found uptake for the service was mixed, with audits of the kerbside bins showing that the service was able to divert 58 per cent of the food waste generated from participating households in Eastwood, but only 13 per cent from participating households in Harris Park.
The cost per house hold per year for the new waste services will be $336.59.
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.