Boroondara City Council FOGO Project (Revoked)

Boroondara City Council FOGO Project (Revoked) was a waste diversion project located within the City of Boroondara, a local government area situated approximately 10km east of the Melbourne CBD in Victoria. Registered in September 2019, the project was designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by diverting organic waste from landfill. It was subsequently revoked in February 2023 under Section 30 of the CFI Rule, which typically indicates a voluntary withdrawal by the proponent, often due to changes in administrative strategy or accounting frameworks rather than a cessation of the underlying activity.

The project operated under the Source Separated Organic Waste methodology. This method credits emissions reductions achieved by separating eligible organic material, specifically Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO), at the point of generation (households and businesses) and diverting it to an eligible treatment facility. Instead of decomposing anaerobically in a landfill and releasing methane, the waste is processed using technologies like open windrow composting. For this specific project, the City of Boroondara collected FOGO waste via kerbside bins (lime-green lids) and transferred it to the Boroondara Recycling and Waste Centre, from where it was transported to the Bio Gro commercial composting facility in Dandenong South.

As an urban waste management initiative, the project area is characterized by high-density residential and commercial land use rather than agricultural terrain. The region experiences a temperate climate with an average annual rainfall of approximately 600mm to 700mm. While the carbon project itself has been revoked, the City of Boroondara continues to operate its FOGO service aggressively, diverting substantial volumes of waste from landfill. Interestingly, the Council has "closed the loop" by utilizing the resulting compost in local public spaces, such as Alexandra Gardens and Canterbury Gardens, noting that the FOGO-derived compost performed better at suppressing weeds than the mushroom compost they previously used.