{"id":38701,"date":"2026-06-25T23:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/38701\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T23:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:35:14","slug":"bunbury-to-pay-1-2-million-a-year-to-truck-organic-waste-160km-to-perth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/38701\/","title":{"rendered":"Bunbury to pay $1.2 million a year to truck organic waste 160km to Perth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ratepayers are set to foot the bill in a bid to resurrect Western Australia’s three-bin FOGO waste management system from collapse outside of Perth.<\/p>\n

The City of Bunbury is set to spend $1.27 million a year to truck its residents’ food and organic waste more than 150km to Perth, following the collapse of local processing.<\/p>\n

The South West region’s Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) waste has been sent directly to landfill since late 2024, when high contamination rates halted local processing.<\/a><\/p>\n

But Bunbury councillors voted this week to spend an extra $695,000 a year to redirect the waste to a FOGO processing facility in Perth.<\/p>\n

Bunbury Mayor Jaysen Miguel said sending the organic waste to landfill was already costing the council $574,000 a year.<\/p>\n

“We’re not going to hide from the fact that this costs more \u2014 our community deserves honesty,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Miguel said the council would try to cut costs by looking to share transport with neighbouring shires and pushing for higher government subsidies.<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/p>\n

Bunbury’s organic waste was once processed locally, but now it will be redirected to Perth to be turned into compost. (ABC South West: Bridget McArthur)<\/p>\n

“This is around the long-term future and what we want to be doing as leaders in the community,” Cr Miguel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The transport costs of FOGO from the South West are being partly subsidised by a state government rebate of $95 per tonne.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state government told the ABC there were no plans to increase the rebate.<\/p>\n

\"Close-up<\/p>\n

Jaysen de San Miguel says sending FOGO to Perth is only an interim measure until a permanent and local solution is found. (ABC South West: Sam Bold)<\/p>\n

FOGO ‘hasn’t failed’<\/p>\n

The City of Bunbury was the first South West council to introduce the FOGO system back in 2013, which one local councillor described as an “expensive failure<\/a>” earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Cr Miguel defended the council’s persistence with FOGO.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think it’s failed,” Cr Miguel said.<\/p>\n

He stressed Perth processing was an interim measure, while work continued on re-establishing local processing.<\/p>\n

He will now write to the state government asking for support for a long-term solution and investment in a local processing facility.<\/p>\n

“A big conversation is, what sort of tonnages would you need to make this viable?” he asked.<\/p>\n

Residents frustrated<\/p>\n

Cr Miguel acknowledged his community’s patience through a “frustrating period”.<\/p>\n

Bunbury ratepayer Linton Hodsdon said trucking FOGO to Perth undermined the environmental ethos of the program.<\/p>\n

“Trucking stuff around the country blows the environmental equation,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That’s\u00a0fuel, carbon pollution, and damage to infrastructure that happens when you transport stuff around.”<\/p>\n

Mr Hodsdon said the focus should be on fixing the multimillion-dollar local processing facility at Banksia Road, managed by the Bunbury Harvey Regional Council (BHRC).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A FOGO bin system has been in place in Bunbury since 2013. (ABC South West: Jacqueline Lynch)<\/p>\n

FOGO transport too expensive\u00a0<\/p>\n

The BHRC facility was central to the South West’s FOGO system, with seven local councils sending their waste there for processing.<\/p>\n

Bunbury is now one of the only councils in the region to resume FOGO processing, with others electing to continue sending organic waste to landfill.<\/p>\n

The neighbouring Shire of Capel voted this week not to send its FOGO waste to Perth.<\/p>\n

Even with government subsidies, Capel Shire President John Fergusson said it was not viable.<\/p>\n

“The current costs associated with transporting FOGO to Perth are cost-prohibitive,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Fergusson urged the state government to direct its $4.5m FOGO rebate package towards re-establishing local processing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe firmly believe that working and advocating alongside our neighbours, on a regional approach and long-term solution, is the best outcome for all and should be a priority,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Shire of Harvey also refused to take up the rebate earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\"Piles<\/p>\n

BHRC’s organic processing facility in Dardanup shut down due to high rates of contaminated waste. (ABC South West: Ella Lonergan)<\/p>\n

2030 organic waste target<\/p>\n

Environmental waste experts said long-distance transport of FOGO waste negated some environmental benefits, but insisted it was important to take a broader perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association chief executive Gayle Sloan said it was important to adhere to a national waste action plan aiming to take 50 per cent of organic waste out of landfill by 2030.<\/p>\n

“We know that organics in landfill create significant methane, which is bad for the environment,” she said.<\/p>\n

Deakin University environmental science lecturer Trevor Thornton said any lapse in FOGO processing would make re-educating residents a challenge.<\/p>\n

“[If] you say to residents, ‘stop now \u2026 but we might start a little bit later’, you’re going to have the same problems.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ratepayers are set to foot the bill in a bid to resurrect Western Australia’s three-bin FOGO waste management…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[31843,31847,31848,31849,31841,31845,31844,12420,335,1686,31842,31846,464],"class_list":["post-38701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-bin-collection-bunbury","tag-bin-day-bunbury","tag-bin-day-dalyellup","tag-bunbury-harvey-regional-council","tag-fogo-bin","tag-fogo-waste-transport","tag-food-and-organic-waste","tag-green-waste","tag-perth","tag-south-west-news","tag-three-bins","tag-wa-bin-collection","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}