By sending food and organic waste to landfill, Australians generate around 13 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year.
That’s about 3% of Australia’s total emissions, according to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Our FOGO (food organics and garden organics) service contributes to us diverting 72% of waste away from landfill each year for the City of Boroondara. But even when you put food waste in your FOGO bin, emissions have already been generated in producing, harvesting, transporting and packaging food that isn’t eaten.
The first step is to avoid wasting food in the first place. You can do this by:
- planning your meals
- shopping to a list
- using leftovers
- storing food correctly
- reducing portion sizes
- buying local and seasonal produce (it stays fresher and lasts longer)
- checking expiry dates before buying
- freezing food that is close to its expiry date.
The next best step when you can’t avoid food waste is to compost it. With International Composting Awareness Week starting on Sunday 7 May, there’s no better time to get composting at home.
Learn more at our workshop
Join our free compost and worm farming workshop on Saturday 6 May, hosted by Sustainable Gardening Australia. Learn about composting, try activities, see composters on display, and ask our circular economy officers all your FOGO questions.
Get discounts on composters and worm farms
We’ve partnered with Compost Revolution to offer residents, businesses, clubs, schools and kinders in the City of Boroondara up to 50% off and free delivery on a range of composters and worm farms. Claim your offer by visiting the Compost Revolution website.
To find more tips and resources to help you take climate action, and track progress on our Climate Action Plan, visit our Climate Action Plan website.
Introducing our new Climate Action Grants
We’re about to open our 2023 Climate Action Grants, to help our community take action on climate change. The new grants provide financial support of up to $10,000 to eligible not-for-profit groups for climate action projects. This includes the delivery of new projects, services, programs and activities that strengthen our community’s capacity to reduce emissions, and/or adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Grants could support initiatives such as:
- a project that makes it easier for our community to access goods and services to make their homes more sustainable
- an activity that supports the uptake of sustainable transport at a workplace
- an education campaign responding to a sustainability challenge, such as removing gas as an energy source
- a service that helps vulnerable residents make their homes more resilient to climate change impacts.
Applications open on Monday 15 May and close on Sunday 11 June.
Our environmental sustainability team will help groups to submit their application and can support them in planning their project or activity. We’ll also hold information sessions on Wednesday 17 May and Thursday 18 May.
To find out more, visit our Climate Action Grants page.