There is a rising stink around rubbish removal in Australia. Councils around the country are looking for ways to divert more organic waste away from landfill.<\/p>\n
Australians generate about 14.6m tonnes<\/a> of organic waste each year \u2013 mostly garden clippings, food scraps and timber. About half of it is collected from households in kerbside bins.<\/p>\n Keeping organics out of the general waste matters, partly because it produces methane \u2013 a potent greenhouse gas far more powerful than carbon dioxide \u2013 when left to rot in landfill.<\/p>\n Organic material is also a valuable, nutrient-rich resource. Already, about 62% of it is diverted from the waste stream and turned into mulch or compost.<\/p>\n Most households across the country can dispose of their organics in either a green or Fogo (food organics and garden organics) bin. But some communities, such as in Castlemaine in central Victoria, have gone further by creating their own local solutions.<\/p>\n Why green waste disposal has become a global problem<\/p>\n The problem of green waste in landfill isn\u2019t unique to Australia. Growing awareness of the methane emissions has led to a global rethink of how to manage rubbish tips.<\/p>\n Dr Robert Crocker, a senior lecturer at Adelaide University\u2019s School of Architecture and Built Environment, says: \u201cThe old model of the dump, where almost everything was organic, has died.\u201d<\/p>\n In Australia, kerbside operations vary from state to state. The Victorian government has introduced mandatory changes, requiring every household to divide their waste into four streams<\/a> \u2013 general rubbish, mixed recycling, glass bottles and jars, and Fogo \u2013 from 1 July 2027.<\/p>\n \u201cFogo is valuable, and that is why the waste managers want it,\u201d Crocker says.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike landfill, which is very expensive to look after responsibly, Fogo can make them a bit of money, and can then be sold on as compost, back to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n But there are also household and community-based ways of dealing with green waste, including using worm farms and composting.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the community has the equipment, they could help community gardens and other gardeners. After all, our big problem in Australia is water retention and nutrient retention in our soils,\u201d Crocker says.<\/p>\n Locals take compost management into their own hands<\/p>\n People in Castlemaine care so deeply about composting, they formed a Yimby (yes, in my back yard) group in 2020, creating a network of dedicated volunteers to make sure organic material was separated, collected and properly composted.<\/p>\n Lucy Young from Yimby Castlemaine says an average day for a volunteer involves walking around their allocated neighbourhood and swapping household compost buckets for clean, lined buckets.<\/p>\n The material is taken to the volunteer\u2019s home, weighed and entered into a database. The group has more than 50 composters collecting from more than 650 households. The group estimates it has now collected about 50,000 buckets.<\/p>\n But when the Mount Alexander shire council announced in 2025 it would introduce a Fogo kerbside bin to separate organic from general waste, Yimby immediately saw a potential problem.<\/p>\n It asked the council to carefully assess the value of adding a Fogo rollout, presenting a petition with over 1,000 signatures calling for a \u201cGo slow on Fogo\u201d so the council could gather data and hear community concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are confident that this community can design a bespoke organics recycling system to care for the organics in this shire and put them back into the soil,\u201d says Young.<\/p>\n Yimby\u2019s vision is based on the neighbourhood system already in place, but with more support for home composters and on-farm composting, and a behaviour change program designed to lift uptake.<\/p>\n The council says it is still considering a Fogo service in line with state government requirements and plans to respond to Yimby\u2019s petition at its next meeting.<\/p>\n A national challenge with local solutions<\/p>\n Many Australian households have adopted composting, worm farms or bokashi systems as a way of turning their organic waste into valuable nutrient-rich soil in their gardens. Crocker says councils should be actively encouraging more community involvement in waste management.<\/p>\n \u201cThe community needs to be engaged and educated \u2026 that is probably what our friends in Castlemaine are attempting to do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Australia should be looking at waste systems elsewhere. Crocker gives the example of Sweden, where there are community hubs for separating and dropping off and separating different types of waste, including e-waste, batteries and other materials.<\/p>\n