Get ready for your FOGO and glass bins

Starting Monday 3 November 2025, the City of Ballarat is rolling out exciting changes to your kerbside collection service.  

Say hello to your new FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics) and Glass recycling bins – making it easier than ever to recycle more and send less to landfill.

What goes in your FOGO bin?

Your bin with the lime green lid (current green waste bin) is for Food Organics and Garden Organics. That means, from November, you will be able to add food waste and garden clippings in your FOGO bin.

Food organics includes:

• Fruit and vegetable scraps
• Raw and cooked meat and bones
• Citrus, eggshells and leftovers
• Seafood and shellfish shells

Garden organics includes:

• Grass clippings
• Leaves and branches
• Weeds and flowers

Other:

• Paper Towel
• Tissues
• Newspaper

Everything in your FOGO bin is turned into compost – great for the environment and for also reducing landfill.

Your green lid FOGO bin collection

If you already have a green waste bin, you are ready to go!  

If not, your new green lid bin will be delivered in September or October.  

Bins are collected fortnightly - check your digital collection calendar for details or download the Ballarat Waste app.

Your FOGO kitchen caddy

To make collecting food waste easy, every household will receive a kitchen caddy and a roll of 150 compostable caddy liners. Simply fill your caddy and empty it into your FOGO bin.

Your seven litre kitchen caddy is made from 100 per cent recycled material and can be recycled through your kerbside mixed recycling bin at the end of it its life.  

The kitchen caddy is dishwasher friendly.

Please remember:

• To only use caddy liners supplied by the City of Ballarat
• Spin the caddy liner closed, rather than tie with a knot, to help the bag break down completely during processing
• Remove stickers and elastic bands from fruit and vegetables

Why FOGO?

Food waste makes up a large portion of household waste. Recycling it through your FOGO bin will:

• Reduce landfill
• Cut greenhouse gas emissions
• Create nutrient-rich compost

What goes in your purple lid glass bin?

Accepted items include:

• Glass bottles, such as soft drink, juice, water, beer, wine, spirits, medicine, vitamin and supplements
• Jars for pasta sauce, jam, pickles and coffee

Important: Lightly rinse your glass items and place them loose in the bin – no bags.

Your Glass collection

Every household will receive a 140-litre purple lid bin in September and October. Glass bins will be collected every four weeks – check your digital collection calendar for details or download the Ballarat Waste app.

Residents can begin to use their purple lid bin once it arrives or continue to drop off glass at one of our Pass on Glass sites until Sunday 30 November.  

The Pass on Glass drop-off sites in the community will then close.

The Pass on Glass site at the Ballarat Transfer Station in Gillies Street will remain open.

Why separate glass?

Separating glass from other recyclables:    

• Improves recycling quality
• Reduces contamination
• Helps divert more waste from landfill

With the introduction of FOGO and Glass bins, Ballarat is moving towards a four-bin kerbside system:

• Purple lid – Glass
• Lime green lid – FOGO
• Yellow lid – Mixed recycling
• Red lid – General waste

This system helps us recycle more effectively and reduce our environmental impact. 

What to expect and when

Between September and October, you will receive:

• A kitchen caddy and compostable liners
• A new lime green lid bin (if you don’t already have one)
• A 140-litre purple lid glass bin
• An information pack explaining what goes in each bin and how to use them