The NSW Government has introduced legislation mandating local councils collect and transport food and garden organics waste (FOGO) from 1 July 2030.

The mandate is set out in the Protection of the Environment Legislation Amendment (FOGO Recycling) Bill 2024 (the Bill) introduced at the end of November. The purpose of the Bill is to reduce recoverable FOGO going to landfill and facilitate its reuse by mandating the collection of source-separated FOGO waste.

This mandate was flagged by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) some time ago, and so is already known to councils, but now the Bill has been introduced, the details of the mandate are available for the first time.

What will the Bill require local councils to do?

If passed, the legislation will mandate the collection and transport of FOGO by requiring local councils to:

• provide houses in their local government areas (LGAs) with organic collection bins (either separate bins for food organics and garden organics or one bin for both); and

• collect and transport that waste (weekly for food organics and on at an interval the local council considers appropriate for garden organics). Council must ensure that FOGO is not mixed with non-organic waste in transportation (such as red bin or yellow bin waste).

Councils only have to provide these services to households where councils otherwise provide red bin collection services.

The Bill makes it an offence for councils not to comply with these obligations, with significant penalties. The maximum penalty is $500,000 with a further penalty of $50,000 for each further day of non-compliance.

Exemptions to the mandate

The mandate applies from 1 July 2030. There is a power under the Bill for the EPA to grant exemptions and the EPA has indicated it will consider granting exemptions in certain circumstances until 2035.

Local Government NSW has previously campaigned for the EPA to grant an exemption for multi-unit dwellings until 2035, in recognition that infrastructure and access concerns may mean FOGO collection is more difficult for these properties. However, there is no indication at this stage how the exemption power will be exercised.

Other aspects of the Bill relevant to businesses

The Bill also requires:

• supermarkets, various institutions and hospitality premises that meet specified bin capacity limits to ensure the separate collection and transport of food organics waste from 1 July 2026; and
• large supermarkets to report monthly on surplus food donations from 1 July 2026.

Key takeaways for local councils

Some key points for local councils to note are:

1. The Bill represents a new regulatory approach to waste collection. Under the current laws, while councils traditionally perform the function of waste collection (either themselves or through the procurement of contractors), there is no express statutory obligation on councils to do this under the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) or otherwise. Under this Bill, however, councils will be expressly required to perform FOGO collection and transportation services.

2. Interestingly, the Bill only mandates the collection and transportation of FOGO. The Bill does not mandate processing of FOGO, nor does it mandate the separation of organic and non-organic waste post-transportation. This suggests that councils can comply with the mandate merely by providing FOGO bins and collecting and transporting the FOGO waste from households weekly. This FOGO waste could then be landfilled or processed alongside non-organic waste without breaching the Bill.

What should Councils do to prepare for this change?

With significant penalties for non-compliance, councils should consider now how to prepare for the mandate's operation.

As a starting point, councils should review their current waste collection contracts to understand their existing commitments and how these may be impacted by the 1 July 2030 deadline. Any new tenders for waste collection should accommodate the requirements of the mandate, allowing for FOGO collection prior to or from 1 July 2030. Councils should also ensure that waste collection and processing agreements align.