The latest round of the New South Wales Government’s $46 million Go FOGO grants are now open to applications.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority is supporting councils in New South Wales to make the switch to FOGO, increasing recycling rates, reducing landfill disposal fees and cutting emissions from landfills.
Go FOGO grants support New South Wales councils to deliver new weekly food only (FO) or food organics and garden organics (FOGO) services to their communities. These may be households that currently have no kerbside organics bin service or households with only a garden waste collection.
Two grant rounds are planned for each year for four years. The program started in the second half of 2022.
The objectives of the Go FOGO grants are to:
- Support the effective rollout of weekly FOGO (or FO) services to 500,000 households that have no organics service
- Support the effective rollout of weekly FOGO (or FO) services to 1,500,000 households that have a garden only waste service
- Provide additional support to councils with a significant number of multi-unit dwellings (MUDs) to deliver additional tailored communication to these properties.
Every year FOGO recycling is estimated to recover up to a million tonnes of food and garden organics. Instead of rotting in landfill, this valuable resource can be processed into high quality commercial compost for use in gardens, parks, sporting fields and agriculture.
All New South Wales councils who have not received funding via Go FOGO, are eligible to apply for funding to roll out new weekly FOGO services or FO services to households that do not currently have a service. The service must be active within three years of the grant application approval.
Councils who have previously received funding under the Waste Less Recycle More organics collections grants are eligible to apply for funding to deliver new services only to households not covered by the previous funding.
Following the assessment and approval process, successful applicants are expected to be notified in early 2025.
Applications will be open until 19 November 2024. To apply for the latest round of FOGO grants, click here.
