Local composting group YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) is calling on Mount Alexander Shire Council to delay the roll-out of a green bin service.
The green ‘FOGO’ (Food Organics-Garden Organics) bin is designed to divert organic waste from landfill.
Lucy Young from YIMBY said that while the group agreed with the council that it was necessary to get organics out of landfill, they didn’t think it was right for the shire.
“The green bin sounds like the right thing to do on the surface, but we are questioning its suitability for us here,” she said.
“We’re worried about cost and the environmental impact, and we think there’s a better solution for our shire.”
The Victorian State Government’s Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act, 2021 legislates that all councils must reduce organics in landfill by 50 per cent.
However, Mount Alexander Shire already boasts one of Victoria’s lowest landfill rates per household.
“Lots of people in our shire already do their own composting, either in their backyard or with YIMBY. We think there’s less waste left to divert than expected, which means FOGO is going to cost a lot for only a small gain,” Lucy said.
“We’re worried about our council entering into a contract in the middle of a fuel crisis, especially for a service that may deliver minimal environmental benefits and that many people may not need.
“We’ve seen in other areas with green bins, such as Bendigo and Hepburn, that getting an exemption involves lots of red tape, so people don’t bother. They either give up composting or pay for a service they don’t use, or even worse, find things to put in the bin, just because they have been given it, thus creating demand that did not exist before!” Lucy said.
YIMBY started in 2021 and has been steadily growing ever since.
“We collect good data from our composters, so we know that our group processes about 2000 kg of food waste each week,” Lucy said.
“We want our council to get some robust data about how much food waste is actually going into landfill before we are locked into a commercial contract to deliver a service that we don’t know is needed.
Mayor Toby Heydon told the Express that the decision on the roll-out of FOGO bins would go before the council in the next couple of months.
“We are in discussions about having an opt-out option and ways to make that as simple as possible for people,” he said.
“We love working with YIMBY. They are active, passionate and knowledgeable, and we are working really hard to make sure YIMBY remains as successful as always.”
According to group organisers, YIMBY is still growing and has plans to begin new initiatives, such as an on-farm trial, to deal with more food waste.
“We’ve started a petition to ask the council to say no to green bins until the 2030 deadline, to give us time to find a better, cheaper solution,” Lucy said.
“We knew people would be surprised that an environmental group like YIMBY is against green bins, so we’ve also written a FAQ page available at www.yimbycompost.com/fogo-faqs for anyone who wants to find out more.”