Changes to waste collection begins this week

Baw Baw Shire residents will be required to sort their food scraps from their general waste as changes to red and green bin collection begins this week.

The FOGO system roll out marks the final step in the State Government's circular economy scheme, with households having a red general rubbish bin, yellow mixed recycling bin, purple glass recycling bin, the green FOGO bin and caddy.

There is no option to opt out of one or more of the services, it's all or nothing according to council, and community members weren't consulted on the changes.
"Ultimately council, as an instrument of the State Government are implementing the circular economy framework. So, we didn't have a lot of scope for community consultation," mayor Kate Wilson said.
"The Federal Government, State Government, have circular economy policies that are addressing the creation of the problematic products in the first instance and council's role is to help community manage waste from the household level."
Cr Wilson emphatically stated there would be no review of the service and no change in frequency, even if it became problematic, but, other measures were in place.
"We know that there will be a small number of households across our community who have exceptional waste needs, and those community members will be able to have special consideration for increased volume of bin, but their collection cycle can't change," Cr Wilson said.
"It's important to note that our Lardner transfer station, in particular, from the same week that FOGO begins, is accepting soft plastics, textiles, and polystyrene for free."
There also are 50 per cent rebates available on compost bins and worm farms, reusable sanitary and incontinence products, and reusable nappies and nursing products.
The program, however, is capped at $10,000 annually, with the rebates coming out of municipal waste charges.
"It's really an opportunity for people to try to make the switch, test those products for themselves; and the rebate is because if it was a cost prohibitive thing for families that was preventing them from doing that - we want to make it accessible for them to try," Cr Wilson said.
Residents can collect a new roll of 1 x 100 bin liners for their FOGO caddy in six months from the Customer Service Centre in Drouin or Warragul and if FOGO caddies are not needed, they can be returned to council.
"It's obvious that we have to make a change to how much waste we're putting in landfill if we want to live sustainably and have an appropriate green environment for our community, our future generations.
"I think it's important for people to understand that the EPA landfill levy has increased by more than 260 per cent over the last eight years. So, making these changes, not only responds to the essential need for all of us to tackle the waste that we're creating as a society, but it's also sensible financially for council to limit that ever-increasing waste charge that gets passed on to households through their rates. So, this makes good sense for the environment that we want to live in, and for our budgets as well," the mayor said.