FOGO Is Coming to Your Bin Room. Here’s How to Stop It Smelling Before Summer
Food scraps are moving out of the general waste bin and into their own green lidded bin. It's called FOGO, short for Food Organics and Garden Organics. For a house, that's a small change. For an apartment building with one shared bin room, it's a big one.
Food waste is wet, it breaks down fast, and it doesn't wait for collection day. Get the setup right now and summer is manageable. Get it wrong and residents will let you know by December.
Here's what's changing, why FOGO bins smell, and what building managers can do about it.
What's changing in Victoria
In 2022 the Victorian Government committed every council to a four bin system. Councils have until 2027 to offer a separate glass service and until 2030 to offer a FOGO service.
Apartment buildings are part of that shift. The City of Port Phillip gave council serviced apartment buildings shared FOGO bins during 2023 and 2024, and set up 76 communal FOGO hubs for buildings that use private contractors. The City of Melbourne has published FOGO information packs for apartment building managers, with the service rolling out to buildings in stages.
If your building isn't on FOGO yet, it's a matter of when, not if.
Why FOGO bins smell more
A general waste bin mixes food with packaging, paper and plastic. A FOGO bin is mostly food and organics. That means more moisture and more material that breaks down quickly.
Council guidance keeps pointing to the same culprits: meat, fish and dairy, wet scraps sitting at the bottom of the bin, and heat. WA's WasteSorted program tells residents to empty caddies often, "especially when adding meat, fish or dairy", and to layer wet scraps between dry material so moisture doesn't build up. Monash Council advises keeping bins in the shade and caddies out of direct sunlight.
In a shared bin room, all of that is concentrated in one space. Twenty households' worth of prawn shells in a warm room on a Friday afternoon is a very different problem to one household's.
Start with residents
Most bin room odour starts in the kitchen. A short, clear note to residents before FOGO begins will save you a lot of complaints later. The council advice is simple and worth passing on:
Empty the kitchen caddy every two to three days and rinse it.
Line the caddy with paper towel or compostable liners certified to AS 4736.
Freeze meat, bones and seafood scraps, then put them in the bin the night before collection.
Let hot food cool before it goes in the caddy.
Add a sprinkle of bicarb soda to help keep things fresh.
Put it on a poster in the bin room and in the lift. Some councils, including Port Phillip, supply ready made FOGO posters for building managers, so check with yours first.
Get the bin room right
The bin room itself matters just as much.
Keep bins cool. If your bin room gets afternoon sun or sits next to a plant room, expect that to be where summer complaints come from.
Never overfill. Council guidance is clear: the lid needs to close properly. If FOGO bins are overflowing before collection, talk to your council or contractor about more bins or more frequent pickups.
Put bins out every collection. Even when they're not full. A half full bin that sits an extra week is worse than a full one collected on time.
Wash bins and floors on a schedule. Food residue on bin bases and floors keeps smelling after the bins are emptied. Clean up spills around the bins as they happen.
Watch for pests. Flies and rodents go where the food is. Monash Council suggests wrapping rotten food in paper towel before it goes in the bin, and even spraying lavender or mint around the base of the bin. Keep the bin room clean and dry and you give pests far less reason to visit. For the flies that still find their way in, a UV LED flylight catches them on a glueboard, with no sprays. Our units are slim, easy to service, and the UV LEDs last up to three years.
Check airflow. An enclosed bin room with poor ventilation holds odour, and it can spread into corridors, car parks and lifts every time a door opens.
When good habits aren't enough
Even a well run bin room can struggle in a Melbourne summer. Buildings with small, enclosed bin rooms, or bin rooms close to lobbies and lifts, often need something that works around the clock. It's worth sorting before the first hot week, not after the first complaint.
That's where continuous odour control comes in. Our bin room odour control system is built for enclosed garbage rooms and loading docks. It works around the clock to break down odours at the source, with minimal maintenance.
It treats the cause instead of covering the smell. For lobbies and lifts, a scent system connected to the air supply then gives residents and visitors a clean, welcoming first impression.
Your checklist before summer
Residents briefed on FOGO habits before the service starts
Posters up in the bin room and lift
Bins out every collection, lids closed
Cleaning schedule set for bins and floors
Shade and airflow checked
Odour control in place for enclosed or hot bin rooms
Talk to us before the heat arrives
We work with strata and building managers on bin room odour in residential buildings. If FOGO is coming to your building, or it's already here and residents are noticing, get in touch and we'll talk through the options for your site.