City of Bunbury introduce FOGO bins at public places

In two places to be exact, one on Bunbury's Koombana Bay and the other at Sykes Foreshore.

The City of Bunbury introduced the trial on January 12 in a bid to remove more waste from landfill.

The locations were chosen because they are close to barbecues, with the theory that food waste will go into the FOGO bin rather than landfill.

City of Bunbury waste services project officer Melanie Turnbull said with the move away from single use plastics, things like paper straws, plates and cardboard can all go into the FOGO bin.

"It can be as dirty as you like, as long its dirty with food," she said.

While the bins are part of a trial it is the city's intention for it to be a permanent part of the public places.

"We will be auditing the bins with every empty to make sure there is no contamination," Ms Turnbull said.

Since the introduction of FOGO to Bunbury households, the local government has seen about 60 per cent of waste be diverted from landfill.

"There is a really low contamination rate in households so we are hopeful it will be the same with these bins," Ms Turnbull said.

Because the playgrounds only have a landfill bin and a FOGO bin, Ms Turnbull encourages people to take their recycling home with them as it would most likely be able to be used for containers for change.

"It is all coming together at the same time with the containers for change, food markets changing their packaging to compostable cardboard - it all normalises it for people and their understanding explodes," Ms Turnbull said.