Food and garden waste bin

You can put the following into your food and garden waste bin:

• bread and cake scraps
• common garden weeds
• dairy products
• egg shells
• flowers
• food scraps from meals
• food that has passed its use by date
• fruit and vegetables
• grass clippings
• leaves 
• loose tea leaves and coffee grounds
• meat and seafood (raw and cooked, including bones)
• prunings
• small branches
• tissues, serviettes, paper towel and shredded paper.

Please don't put the following items into your food and garden waste bin because they can't be composted at the composting facility:

• building material, concrete, soil, rocks and bricks
• cardboard boxes or pizza boxes
• coffee pods or takeaway coffee cups
• dog or cat droppings
• food and garden waste in plastic bags
• glass
• hair (including pet hair)
• household garbage or cigarette butts
• kitty litter
• nappies or baby wipes (including compostable or biodegradable nappies)
• paper plates and coffee cups
• plant pots
• plastic bags and plastic packaging (including bags, cling wrap, ties)
• products labelled as compostable (like coffee cups, plates and takeaway containers. Lime green compostable bin liners are ok)
• rubbish or recyclable items
• scrap metal
• sharps, medicines, batteries and toys
• tea bags
• tree stumps and ash
• vacuum dust
• wooden icy pole sticks.

If you want to purchase additional caddy liners, they are available from most major supermarkets.

• Please make sure that the liners are 100% compostable Australian certified bags. They'll be lime green in colour.
• Your kitchen caddy is 7 litres, so choose a 7 or 8 litre capacity liner.

You don't have to use caddy liners. You can simply place food scraps directly into the food and garden waste bin and give it a wash after each use. Alternatively, you can use newspaper to line the kitchen caddy to reduce mess in the bins.

The bin liner bags we provide to use in your kitchen caddy can sometimes be a little tricky to open.

They're fragile because they're made from corn starch and designed to break down easily. They may not seem to open all the way or they may appear have split down the middle.

If you place the bag in front of you with the arrows up, and then rub the top of the bags between your thumb and forefinger, the sides will separate into a full bag. It’s a little similar to what you would do to the plastic fruit bags at the supermarket.

Below is a handy video that may also help you with your bags.

There are many benefits to a Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) collection system, including: 

• reducing the amount of food waste that ends up in landfill, saving landfill space and reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• saving money on rising landfill costs
• producing a quality compost product for use in gardens, parks, farms and open spaces.

Soil and turf are too heavy for the bins. The weight of soil or turf can cause damage to the truck lift or cause the bin itself to crack or break. 

If you need to dispose of soil that can't be re-incorporated into your garden, you can take it to Heidelberg Materials (Wollert landfill) (charges apply).

Your food and garden waste bin will be emptied fortnightly. Please see our bin collection schedule for more information. 

You can order your food and garden waste bin online or call us on 03 9217 2170.

Yes, if you're a tenant in a rental property, you can order a food and garden waste bin online or by calling us on 03 9217 2170.

Council supplies one kitchen caddy per household. We’re unable to supply replacements. 

If your caddy breaks, you can use other containers, such as an old ice cream container, to store your food scraps before placing them in the food and garden waste bin.

Alternatively, you can purchase a kitchen caddy from a retail store such as Bunnings or Kmart.

No, you don’t need to use the caddy liners if you don’t want to. You can line your caddy with newspaper or paper towel or simply place the food waste loose into the bin, as shown in the video below. 

Here are our top tips for avoiding smells in your food and garden waste bin:

• Keep your food and garden waste bin in the shade.
• Don’t overfill your bin, and make sure you keep the lid closed.
• Before you place your compostable caddy in your bin, tie the caddy bag in a knot at the top so food can’t spill out into the bin.
• If you prefer not to use compostable caddies, wrap your food waste in paper towel or newspaper before you put it in the bin.
• Keep seafood and meat scraps in the freezer until the night before your collection day.
• Wash your caddy regularly using detergent or eucalyptus oil or by placing it in the dishwasher.
• Sprinkle some bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) in your caddy and bin to absorb any smells.
• Layer food waste between lawn clippings or garden waste.

Meat, bones and other protein sources can attract flies and maggots. 

Here are some tips to try to avoid maggots: 

• Drain as much liquid as possible from your food scraps.
• Wrap meat scraps and bones in a sheet of newspaper before putting them in your bin.
• Freeze meat, fruit and vegetables in newspaper or paper bags and put them in your green bin the night before pick up.
• Alternate layers of kitchen waste with layers of paper product.
• Line the outer rim of your bin with salt or vinegar.
• Clean your food and garden waste bin regularly using warm water and mild soap. Wash and rinse your bin on your lawn, not near gutters or storm drains, because the rinse water might flow into local creeks and waterways.
• Keep the bottom of your green bin dry by lining it with newspaper or paper towel to absorb liquid and prevent material from sticking to it.
• Eliminate or minimise smells by sprinkling your bin with vinegar or baking soda.
• Store your green bin in a shady, well-ventilated area.

Try covering the maggots with lime, salt or vinegar, and spraying the top and inside of your bin with vinegar.

If you already compost your food and garden waste at home, that’s great and we encourage you to continue.

But it’s important to note that the food and garden waste collection service allows you to recycle a larger variety of food waste and garden waste than you can compost at home. 

It can also take organic material that doesn’t easily break down, or that needs to be chopped up into smaller pieces at home, such as meat, fish, bones, corn cobs, fruit stones and watermelon skins.

The food and garden waste is transported to Repurpose It in Epping, where it’s made into compost using a highly controlled composting process. This process takes 8 - 10 weeks.

The compost is used as soil fertiliser in a wide range of settings, including farms, parks, schools and community gardens.