POEO Act FOGO Regulation

This month, the NSW government amended the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW) (POEO Act) to mandate the source-separated collection of Food Organic and Garden Organic (FOGO) waste from households and food waste from businesses.  This was achieved by inserting a new Chapter 5A “Food organics and garden organics waste”, into the POEO Act.

The amendment is crucial for ensuring that New South Wales, particularly Greater Sydney, can reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.  Most of the diverted FOGO waste will be converted into high quality compost for parks, sporting fields and agriculture.

For our local government clients, by 1 July 2030, a local council must:

• Provide each household in the local council’s area with an organics collection bin to hold the average amount of food and garden organics waste generated by a household of that type.
• Ensure that organics collection bins provided for the collection of organics waste generated by households are collected for transportation away from each household at least once each week, or at other intervals considered appropriate by the local council.
• Ensure food organics waste and garden organics waste generated by households and collected for transportation are not mixed with non-organic waste during transportation.

See: s 170E of the POEO Act

Other changes affect operators of businesses that generate FOGO waste and require operators of large supermarkets to keep records of food donations.

If a local council does not comply with s 170E of the POEO Act, the maximum penalties are, $500,000, and for each day an offence continues, $50,000. Penalty notices can range from $5,000 for a first offence to $7,500 for a subsequent offence.

Executive liability under s 169A of the POEO Act also applies to the new FOGO waste mandates.  This means that a director or person involved in the management of a corporation (such as a local council), who can influence the conduct of the corporation regarding the offence, may be personally liable for non-compliances.  However, the penalties are halved if the corporation is a local council.

If waste collection practices and contracts have not already changed at your council, they will need to change as the 1 July 2030 deadline approaches.