Kerbside recycling: food and garden organics collections

What you can put in your FOGO bin

• Vegetable and fruit peelings
• Leftovers
• Cooked and uncooked meat
• Dairy products such as cream cheese or yoghurt
• Meat and fish bones
• Coffee grounds
• Tea leaves
• Cut flowers
• Pruned branches and leaves
• Grass clippings
• Dead plants.

• Remove any food packaging, plastic bags or labels including produce labels.
• Check no metal such as cutlery is included.
• Remove any plant pots and labels.
• Shake soil and rocks off plants.

• Compostable or biodegradable packaging and cutlery
• Paper and cardboard (unless used as a bin liner)
• Plastics, including plastic wrapping
• Coffee pods
• Tea bags
• Pet poo.

Once collected and processed, the materials in your FOGO bin will be recycled back into the soil. Materials that may not properly break down or risk introducing harmful pollutants to our soils are not allowed in FOGO bins.

• Compostable and biodegradable packaging requires specific conditions to breakdown, but most facilities in Aotearoa lack the necessary equipment for handling this packaging. The Ministry for the Environment’s position statement on compostable products provides further information. 

• Packaging including paper and cardboard might also contain chemicals known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) which are harmful to the environment. This chemical is often added to make the packaging water or grease resistant.

• Plastic can't be composted because it doesn't break down naturally like other materials. Instead, it can disintegrate into tiny pieces called microplastics which are harmful to the environment.

• Coffee pods are typically made of plastic or aluminum which cannot break down in organic material processing facilities.

• Many tea bags sold in Aotearoa contain plastic, either woven into the tea bag or used as a glue/sealant.

Read more about why paper, cardboard, and compostable packaging can't go in your FOGO collection

The way that food and garden organics are processed varies across the country. Depending on how your local processing facility operates, there are some materials that may not break down fully.

Check whether your local council’s FOGO collection allows:

• Compostable bin liners
• Noxious weeds such as tradescantia
• Fibrous or woody plants such as flax and bamboo
• Shells such as mussels or pipis
• Garden material that is likely to contain chemical spray residue.

• Compost
• Other soil amendment products.

Food and garden waste is sent to a composting facility to be processed. There are different composting technologies which can be used such as in vessel, open windrow and aerated static piles.

These various composting techniques all produce similar end products see What can I do with my food waste [Office of the Prime Minister's chief science advisor website].