Posted February 4, 2020

Vented caddies cut smells and costs

FACT: It costs 85% more for councils in Adelaide to send food organic and garden organic (FOGO) waste to landfill versus a green (FOGO) bin.¹

FACT: Councils could save even more if householders use ventilated kitchen caddies lined with BioBags to collect food scraps for FOGO bins. Research shows vented caddies capture 3 times more food scraps than non-vented caddies for recycling into compost.

Food scraps lose 17% of their weight after 3 days in a BioBag-lined, Max Air ventilated caddy due to water evaporation. And they lose 28% after 7 days.²

For householders using ventilated kitchen caddies this means:

✔ no bad odours

✔ no mildew

✔ minimal condensation

For councils offering ventilated caddies to householders this means:

✔significantly lower costs to collect, transport and process organic waste –

✔outweighing the cost of supplying the caddies and BioBags to residents

COUNCIL & RATEPAYER SAVINGS

80% of Australian councils are yet to offer residents FOGO bins… imagine how much they could save!³

It costs councils about $42 per tonne to dispose of organic waste by current industry averages. So councils could save approximately $12 per tonne if food scraps lose 28% of their original weight in a ventilated BioBag after 7 days.

Ratepayers saved $10,000 in waste levies in Adelaide’s City of Burnside by sending 93 tonnes less waste to landfill during the 10 weeks leading up to November 2019. If they stay on course to save 500 tonnes of rubbish from going to landfill in 2020, Burnside residents will save $65,000.⁴

Adelaide councils could save $10 million in the state government’s solid waste levy if food scraps were eliminated from rubbish bins.⁵

WHY FOGO?

Of the 21 million tonnes that is currently landfilled in Australia over 10 million tonnes is organics (food, garden waste, pallets, timber etc).⁶

Removing food from landfill is the third most effective way we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change.

Composting organic waste is also one of Australia’s cheapest global warming abatement options and one of the easiest things we can do to reduce our carbon footprint.⁷ First, we need to reduce our food waste by throwing less away.