Scrap your scraps - additional communal food organic recycling hubs

Communal food organic (FO) recycling hubs will be available and ready to use this week in three new locations across our City. This means even more of us can conveniently and sustainably dispose of our food scraps.

Starting in May 2021, we introduced communal Food Organic (FO) recycling hubs at three locations for an initial trial period of six months. During that time, our community diverted approximately 28 tonnes of food organics material from landfill. In response to high demand for this service, we decided to expand it to three more locations in the City. As of this week, there is now a total of six hubs available in Port Phillip, expanding the number of residents who can participate in a more sustainable future for our City. 

The three new communal FO recycling hubs in your area will be ready to use from this week at the following locations: 

  • Walter Reserve, Port Melbourne 
  • Clarke Reserve, Elwood  
  • Hewison Reserve, St Kilda East

About our communal food organics (FO) recycling hubs  

Our green-lidded communal FO recycling hubs provide bins for the food scraps that you would usually put in your garbage bin. You can now take scraps, including fruit, vegetables, meat and bread, to your nearest recycling hub for disposal. Rather than ending up in landfill, your food organics will be collected and taken to a facility in Dandenong South to be composted and reused. 

How do I use the communal food organics recycling hub? 

  • Use any container with a lid (empty ice-cream cartons or old Tupperware make perfect food collection caddies) to collect all food scraps and unwanted leftovers. 
  • Make sure that all plastic, including bags, cling wrap, stickers and rubber bands are removed from your food waste. 
  • Take your container to your nearest communal food organic recycling hub. 
  • Empty the contents into one of the bins. We recommend doing this every two to three days. 
  • Give the container a wash with warm, soapy water after use. You can also use newspaper or compostable liner to line the container.  

What can you put in the communal food organics recycling hub? 

  • Fruit, vegetables, cheese and eggshells.
  • Cooked and baked goods, including bread, pasta and rice.
  • Coffee grounds and loose tea leaves. 
  • Garden waste: to save room for your neighbours to dispose of their food organics, please do not place large garden waste such as tree trimmings and lawn clippings in these bins. Small amounts of green waste such as cut flowers and indoor plant trimmings can go into the communal bin. 

Compostable liners 

We encourage our community to use our communal FO recycling hub as much as possible. To help you get started, we will provide you a roll of compostable liners for your household. Please feel free to collect a free roll at our customer service centres at the St Kilda Town Hall and / or at Port Melbourne Town Hall.  

If you’d like to purchase more, please note that only compostable liners marked AS 4736 can be accepted in our communal FO recycling bin. 

Have your say 

The expansion of our communal hubs was largely informed by community demand and feedback to our initial trial. We will be proposing further changes to our waste strategy to address the challenges and opportunities presented by the future of waste in our City. To ensure we are responding effectively to the needs of our community, we are seeking your input. Our Have Your Say page is now open and accepting feedback.

Find out more:

Reviewing how we manage waste in our City | Have Your Say Port Phillip.

For more information on our communal FO recycling hubs, please visit www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/fogo  or contact ASSIST on 9209 6777.