Food Organics and Garden Organics Facility


Current update

Work is currently underway on the planning and environmental approvals. The draft environmental impact statement is currently under assessment.

Page last reviewed 05 Apr 2024

Food Organics and Garden Organics Facility, Hume

Planning is underway on Food Organics and Garden Organics Facility.

The ACT Government is strengthening Canberra’s circular economy by investing in a large-scale Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) facility. The new facility is to be located in the Hume Resource Recovery Estate, and be designed, built and operated by a contractor for the Territory.

A FOGO processing facility in the ACT will allow the FOGO service to be rolled out to all ACT households. The facility will be capable of processing 50,000 tonnes of FOGO material per year and be able to expand to take up to 70,000 tonnes per year to meet future demand.

The facility will divert food and garden organics from landfill and reduce greenhouse gases by turning food scraps and garden waste into valuable compost. It will therefore help to achieve both resource recovery and emission reduction targets.

Project description

In the ACT, roughly one-third of the household landfill bin is food. This means we’re sending around 26,000 tonnes of food waste to landfill each year.

A Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) pilot is now servicing around 5,000 households in Belconnen, Bruce, Cook and Macquarie to help residents recycle food scraps and garden waste. The pilot will test the FOGO service before it is rolled out to the wider Canberra community once a FOGO processing facility has been built.

The FOGO service diverts food waste from landfill and reduces harmful greenhouse gases by turning food scraps and garden waste into valuable compost for the soil. The Government is committed to building a circular economy and meeting the National Waste Action Plan targets for halving organic waste sent to landfill by 2030. At full scale operation the facility is expected to produce about 28,000 tonnes of compost each year. The compost created will go back into the parks and gardens across Canberra or the surrounding region.

The design, construction and operation of a FOGO processing facility on John Cory Road in the Hume Resource Recovery estate is proposed. This will be a new facility as there is currently no large scale FOGO processing facility in the ACT. FOGO material collected as part of the Belconnen pilot is currently processed at Corkhill Bros at the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre.

The key features of a FOGO facility are detailed below.

  • A receival hall to pre-sort the food and garden waste.
  • Enclosed composting tunnels to compost the material, providing aeration, temperature and moisture control.
  • A biofilter to filter out small particles from the air which produce odour so that clean air is emitted.
  • An enclosed maturation building where the composted material will further stabilise (mature) before being screened and further refined into finished compost products.
  • Administration building.

The construction and operation of this facility will support local and national jobs. The FOGO facility is likely to generate up to 15 direct jobs, as well as additional indirect employment opportunities.

It is anticipated the ACT’s first FOGO processing facility will be operational in 2026. This timeframe is subject to environmental and planning approvals along with successful procurement processes.

Environmental Impact Statement

The new facility requires the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS considers all the environmental, social and economic impacts associated with the proposal and ensures any adverse impacts are avoided, minimised and mitigated.

From May to June 2023 we talked with the community and stakeholders ahead of preparing the EIS. We heard support for the FOGO facility and also heard concerns about traffic, construction and noise impacts with development and operation of the facility as well as the potential for odour and litter.

Feedback was considered in preparation of the draft EIS which was lodged with the Planning Authority in November 2023 and has been publicly notified. The public notification period was open until Tuesday 12 March 2024. The draft EIS is now under assessment. Please visit the Planning website for more information.

Mitigation and management

Odour and dust generation

  • An air quality impact assessment was undertaken as part of the draft Environmental Impact Statement and is available at Appendix O in the documentation.
  • The assessment found all proposed activities to be acceptable from an air quality perspective.
  • Potential sources of odour will be incoming trucks delivering FOGO, the composting process and storage, and off-site transport of composted products.

Mitigation and management

  • The facility would be totally enclosed with a ventilation system that maintains negative pressure, with opening roller doors for truck access in and out of the waste receival area.
  • All process air (including from the receival hall, primary composting tunnels and hallway, and the maturation and refining building) would be treated by an odour control system prior to discharge in the environment.
  • Dust will be minimised during construction of the facility with appropriate dust mitigation and management measures.

Noise generation

  • A Noise and Vibration Impact Assessment has been prepared for the draft EIS and is available at Appendix Q in the documentation.
  • Noise levels will be compliant with the relevant noise standard limit of 65 dBA in the Noise Environmental Protection Policy.
  • The operational times will be determined by the contractor, however, it is expected the hours will be consistent with the surrounding industrial environment and the adjacent Materials Recovery Facility. Operating hours will be specified in the development approval conditions.
  • The main sources of noise will be during operational hours and generated from heavy vehicle movements, mobile plant operations, break-out noise from the facility (e.g. receival hall and composting hall) and axial fans.

Mitigation and management

  • As part of the Noise and Vibration Impact Assessment for the FOGO facility, management or mitigation measures will be developed (if required) during the detailed design stage to ensure the facility’s operational activities comply with the relevant guidelines and legislation of the ACT.

Visual impacts

  • A Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment has been undertaken as part of the draft EIS. It is available at Appendix J in the EIS documentation.
  • The new facility is to be located within the Hume Resource Recovery Estate and impacts on this existing landscape character were assessed as low.
  • Impacts to the character of other landscape zones within the vicinity were assessed as negligible.
  • This is due to views being commonly screened or filtered by surrounding built form, topography and/or vegetation. Furthermore, the proposed infrastructure components are similar in scale, height and character to the surrounding existing infrastructure.

Traffic generation and parking

  • The facility will generally operate from Monday to Friday, coinciding with truck deliveries from household bin collections and the loading and transportation of processed products.
  • Peak times for truck traffic will typically be between 9:30 am to midday, and 1:30 pm to 5 pm weekdays. Weekend use of the facilities is not yet determined and will be subject to the operator.
  • During operation at full capacity, the facility is expected to generate the following vehicle movements during peak hour:
    • Heavy vehicles: 40 vehicle movements (20 inbound and 20 outbound)
    • Light vehicles: 40 vehicle movements (20 inbound in the AM, 20 outbound in the PM).
  • All up it is estimated to be around 96 inbound and 96 outbound heavy vehicles per day.
  • Access to the facilities will be via the existing road network including Recycling Road and John Cory Road.
  • Parking for employees and visitors to the FOGO facility will be provided within the site.

Mitigation and management

  • The Traffic Impact Assessment has looked at the existing traffic and assessed the impact of the new facilities and determined both construction and operation of the facility will have minimal impact on the road network when compared to its current performance.
  • Car parking will be provided onsite for staff and visitors expected for operation of the facility and will comply with car parking accessibility requirements. Further detail will be provided at the development application stage.

Printable resources

Contact us

Email: communityengagement@act.gov.au

We acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as traditional custodians of the ACT and recognise any other people or families with connection to the lands of the ACT and region. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region.

To see how we are building stronger relationships with the Traditional Custodians of the ACT view the Reconciliation Action Plan.