FOMO of FOGO

My stinky red bin will only be emptied every two weeks. No way!

Gross food scraps kept in yet another bin, right under my sink. Nope! I already have a compost bin. This is redundant. Plus, you know, change is scary.

If you’ve just found out about FOGO (Food Organics & Garden Organics) recycling changes coming to your neighbourhood, you probably feel the same way, right? Well fair enough, it’s all true.

HOWEVER.

Now that it’s here in my very own suburb, maybe it’s not so bad …

You see, my red bin no longer stinks very much, as it doesn’t have any rotting food in it anymore.

The cute little green bin they give you makes cleaning up after dinner that much easier. You just whack in on the kitchen bench and scrape away. So good! Especially if you have kids (or picky eaters) in the family.

Composting already? Well, this thing takes your breadcrumbs, chicken bones and burnt pumpkin! There is plenty of green stuff left for you to compost.

And this is just the household benefits! What about the significant environmental advantage, with much greater recycling capacity?! Circular economy benefits to support farmers?! Local job creation to help the economy itself?! Waste reduction to reduce landfill?!

The truth is, we have state of the art technology being developed and implemented right here in Sydney and across Australia. Businesses like Global Renewables in Blacktown build bespoke facilities to deal with, enhance and reap the benefits of FOGO in a safe and seamless way. And the more we get on-board in our daily lives, the more viable sustainability projects like this, can be developed and flourish.

So, you know what, FOGO is not so bad. In fact, I kind of love it.

I recently went a bit overboard trimming the garden this Spring. I was left with piles of green waste that will take months to get rid of. Well, now it’s taking half the time, as my green bin gets collected twice as often! Winning!

I just wish I had known about all these great benefits, both domestically and environmentally, before it all began. I’m sheepish to reflect on my instinctual reaction to suggesting an adjustment to the status quo. There was obviously oodles of information about it, if I looked. But knowing the overwhelming competition for modern day household attention, we need to up our game and find more creative and effective ways to inform, educate and influence. And this should happen BEFORE our cute little FOGO bins get delivered, not after.

Behaviour change campaigns can be tricky. When it’s done right, everyone benefits. This way, we can avoid the ‘No way! Nope! Change is scary” phase.

We can just go right to the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) phase, where we can’t wait to get our extra little bin that makes life a little bit easier around the house and a lot better around the planet.

If your city, or suburb does not have FOGO yet, then you probably have some FOMO instead.

-Nathan- (with illustration by Annabel)