Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) recovery
Cleanaway’s South East Organics Facility (SEOF) in Dandenong South is a state-of-the-art facility that sorts, decontaminates, and shreds more than 100,000 tonnes of Food Organics and Green Organics (FOGO) waste every year. This facility serves kerbside FOGO collections across South East Melbourne.
Cleanaway’s partner, Gippsland Water, has an EPA licensed facility in Duston Downs—Soil Organics Recycling Facility (SORF) – that takes the organic product, and through a combination of in-vessel and open windrow processing, pasteurises and matures the material to a high-grade compost.
The SEOF diverts organic materials that would typically end up in landfill. It offers a sustainable, closed loop solution by taking waste and processing it as a resource to create new products.
Key features
The South East Organics Facility is an advanced facility that features:
- More than 100,000 tonnes per annum capacity
- 24-hour license
- Long range RFID automated inbound and outbound weighbridges
- Fixed camera system with real-time monitoring of incoming material, processing floor and out load area
- Three customer unloading bays
- 465KL fire tank on site
- LED lighting throughout the site
- Internal construction specifications: push walls 450mm thick and load out walls 450mm thick
- Early Suppression Fast Response (ESFR) fire system across the processing area
- 24/7 thermal imaging platform and three stage notification
- 2,700m2 floor space
How we do it
Food organics and green organics are collected from homes and commercial customers and is delivered to the South East Organics Facility. The waste is sorted, decontaminated and shredded, then transferred to trucks that would transport the waste to a composting facility. The composting facility breaks down the shredded FOGO and turns it into compost. This compost will then be used on broadacre farms, gardens and parks.
Cleanaway’s food depackaging unit allows us to take large volumes of food or liquid packaged in aluminium, plastic, liquid paperboard or cardboard and separate the organic material to be recycled. Separated organic material is sent to SEOF for processing. For food manufacturers and supermarkets where food waste is inevitable and often in bulk, the depackaging function is a leap forward for reducing waste to landfill and achieving sustainability goals.