Council will conduct a two-phased food waste collection pilot of targeted households in our LGA, prior to rolling out across the entire Northern Beaches area. Phase 1 of the pilot will see food waste added to existing green-lidded garden vegetation bins beginning in late October 2025 and finishing in mid March 2026.

Phase 2 of the pilot will add food waste only to a separate burgundy-lidded bin and will run from late April 2026 to September 2026.

The pilot will enable Council to test each model to provide an evidence-based approach for future scale-up and determine the:

• capacity of each system to reduce household food waste to landfill and emissions
• any pain points or service delivery challenges
• potential contamination rates and impacts on processing.

As outlined in the Waste and Circular Economy Strategy 2040, Council is taking a phased approach to a food organics collection, with the first step proposed to carry out a localised pilot of a food waste collection.

The implementation of a full-scale food collection is a large investment for Council. By implementing a pilot, it will provide an evidence-based approach for future scale up of the service across the entire LGA as required by the NSW Government and ensure that Council has the best chance to put in place the most user friendly, sustainable, and economically/environmentally feasible option for both Council and the community.

5 months (20 weeks).

Starting date/first collection:

Cromer - Wed 29 October 2025

Dee Why - Fri 31 October 2025

Finish date/last collection:

Cromer - Wed 11 March 2026

Dee Why - Fri 13 March 2026

At the end of the pilot, residents will return to the existing service and no longer have a food collection service, until a new system is introduced across the whole Northern Beaches. Pilot residents can keep the kitchen caddy and any leftover liners.

As Council are doing a staged approach to a food waste collection, a new service will start before the required NSW Government mandate timing of 1 July 2030.

The properties in the pilot areas have been selected to ensure that diverse properties and communities across the Council area are included and representative of the LGA. These include single houses as well as low, medium and high-density units.

The pilot is funded by the Domestic Waste Charge and there will be no additional cost to pilot participants.

That's great! Home composting avoids emissions from transporting food organics to a licenced composting facility and produces a nutrient rich product that can be used on your garden. We encourage all residents to continue using existing home composting systems for their food waste or reach out to us if they'd like to start.

There are some items like meat, dairy, bones, citrus and onions, which are best not composted at home, so if you are in the pilot area, you can still participate and place those items in the green lidded bin during the pilot to keep them out of landfill.

Yes. The pilot is based on everyone in the pilot area participating. Your participation over the next 5-months will enable Council to learn from your experience and ensure a smooth transition of the service across the whole Northern Beaches in the coming years.

Plus, by being part of the pilot you’ll be making a difference - diverting unnecessary waste from landfill and helping the environment.

No, only those in the selected pilot suburb areas can participate in the pilot.

If you rent a house/unit that is in one of the pilot areas/suburbs, you can participate in the pilot.

Ideally, we ask that you leave the kitchen caddy and liners there so the new tenant/owner can participate in the pilot.

Please contact Council via the general enquiry button on the Main page to let us know that you are interested in becoming a “champion” in your building, encouraging your neighbours to participate in the pilot.

Please call Customer service for more information.

Go to the Food Waste page on the Council website to see tips, videos, workshops on how to minimise food waste and/or start to separate food waste by home composting, worm farming or community gardens.

During the pilot, your green bins containing food and garden waste, will be collected on the same day as your normal bin collection, just weekly instead of fortnightly. The red bin will continue to be collected weekly during the pilot. All other bins will be collected as usual.

Green Vegetation - Weekly (instead of fortnightly)

General Waste - Red Bins - Weekly (as usual)

Recycling Bins - Yellow & Blue - houses fortnightly / units weekly (as usual)

If you need assistance with additional bins, please contact Council using the general enquiry button on the Main page.

If you need assistance with your bin collection, please contact Council via the general enquiry button on the Main page.

If you need assistance with additional bins, please contact Council via the general enquiry button on the Main page.

The red bin will continue to be collected weekly throughout the pilot. Nappies should be disposed of as normal in the red bin.

Yes, please put your green bin out for collection, even if only partially full, as Council wants to understand how much food is being placed into the bins.

Yes, if you have food and garden waste in more than one green bin, you can place them out, even if only partially full, for collection weekly.

To help Council understand the participation and contamination we have engaged waste auditors to collect and analyse the bin contents.

There is usually more food waste during the Christmas period, so by having a weekly collection of green bins should help with the volume of food waste.

1. Sprinkle bicarb soda on bottom of caddy or kerbside bin to absorb liquids and odours.

2. Freeze meat or seafood scraps and place in kerbside bin night before collection.

3. Clean your kitchen caddy and kerbside bin regularly to remove any residue that might attract flies.

4. Layer garden waste on top of food waste in kerbside bins.

A kitchen caddy is a small, portable container used to collect food waste in the kitchen. It's typically placed on a countertop or under the sink. The kitchen caddy can be lined with a compostable liner or food waste can be placed in loose without a liner.

One week before the first collection, approximately 22 or 23 October, a kitchen caddy, roll of compostable liners and educational resources will be delivered to the front door of each pilot residence.

Use the council provided kitchen caddy and compostable liners to easily transfer your food waste from kitchen to kerbside green bin.

1. Line your kitchen caddy with the compostable liners provided, or you can put your food waste in 'loose’ (without a liner) if preferred.

2. Collect cooked & raw food waste, expired food and old takeaway in your kitchen caddy. For more details on what is and isn't permitted, see the downloadable A-Z list on the main page under pilot resources.

3. Empty into your green vegetation bin as needed.

4. You can cover your scraps with leaves, branches or grass clippings. This will keep your bin smelling fresh.

No, you can use any container you choose to transfer your food waste – including meats, dairy, and bones – to your kerbside green bin.

If you are using liners we ask that you only use the certified compostable liners provided by Council. However, you can put food directly into the kitchen caddy without using a liner at all - this is the most environmentally friendly way to separate your food waste.

Please refer to the kitchen caddy lid, or information guide brochure (received with caddy).

Download the A-Z pdf for a full list of what can and can’t be put in your kitchen caddy.

Everyone in the pilot is provided with a 7-litre kitchen caddy, however you can use any container you choose to transfer your food scraps from your kitchen to your outside bin.

Yes, kitchen caddies can be washed in the dishwasher.

If your kitchen caddy is broken, you can pick up a new kitchen caddy from one of Council's customer service locations, open from 8am - 5pm, Monday-Friday:

• 1 Park Street Mona Vale
• 725 Pittwater Road Dee Why
• 1 Belgrave Street Manly.

Here are a few tips to keep your kitchen caddy free from fruit flies and odour:

1. Keep your kitchen caddy away from direct sunlight. The best place to store your caddy is on your kitchen bench, under the sink or inside the fridge.

2. Wash and rinse your caddy regularly after emptying. You can also put it in your dishwasher to clean it.

3. Sprinkle bi-carb soda on the bottom of your caddy to keep it dry and free of odours.

4. Always keep the lid closed and leave the handle up to keep the lid locked.

At the end of the pilot, you may keep the kitchen caddy and use it in any way you want. If you have the space to do so, you may want to set up your own home composting system for your food scraps. However, food waste should no longer be placed in the green bin.

Kitchen caddies distributed by Council are all made in Australia from 100% post-consumer recycled content.

The compostable liners provided are made from plant based bioplastic materials, e.g. cornstarch, that break down into natural elements in a composting environment. The compostable liners supplied by Council are Australian Certified (AS 4736) and are designed to break down in industrial composting conditions.

No, the compostable liners provided are designed to break down in the composting process, unlike other plastic bags/liners that do not. You can also choose to place food waste directly into the caddy without a liner.

For pilot residents only, you can pick up another roll of liners (no cost) from any of Council's customer service locations, open from 8am - 5pm, Monday-Friday:

• 1 Park Street Mona Vale
• 725 Pittwater Road Dee Why
• 1 Belgrave Street Manly.

The compostable liners are made of cornstarch and designed to break down with your food waste in the composting process. Because of this, the liner will breakdown faster when wet, therefore you want to avoid as much moisture and liquid as possible. It is recommended to store them in a cool dry place.

Compostable liners are designed to break down completely when composted. This process can begin within a few days in a moist environment, especially if the scraps include citrus juice. There are some steps you can take to stop the leak being a problem:

• Empty the compostable bag into the food waste bin every 2 or 3 days.
• Rinse/wash the caddy regularly.
• Keep the kitchen caddy and compostable bags in a cool dry place and away from sunlight.
• Carry the kitchen caddy with the compostable liner inside to empty the contents into the green bin if too much liquid is present. Then wash and dry the kitchen caddy before placing another compostable liner in.

We recommend tying the liner handles once as when they are tied twice and/or tightly, it can take a much longer time to break down in the composting process. If the liner is full and you do need to tie twice, please ensure the knot is loose and not too tight.

Go to the Food Waste page on the Council website to see tips, videos, workshops on how to minimise food waste and/or start to separate food waste by home composting, worm farming or community gardens.

Council suggests doing a composting or worm farm workshop at Kimbriki that will then entitle you to a $90 voucher to purchase a compost or worm farm. This will enable you to continue separating your food waste. Alternatively contact your local community garden.

Kitchen Caddies – pilot residents can keep their kitchen caddies at the end of the pilot. You can use these to continue to separate your food scraps for home composting or worm farming. If you do not wish to keep the kitchen caddy, please contact customer service for options to return.

The pilot food and garden waste is sent to Cleanaway Eastern Creek, a licensed processing facility, to be processed as compost for beneficial use such as agriculture, urban amenity, urban and mine site rehabilitation.

No, Kimbriki is not processing the food and garden waste for the pilot as they are not currently licensed to receive food waste.

FOGO is a common industry term that stands for Food Organics and Garden Organics. It refers to a waste management system that sees food waste added to vegetation waste in your green vegetation bin.

FO is a common industry term that stands for Food Organics. It refers to a similar waste management system to FOGO, but in this case the food waste is disposed of in its own separate bin, usually with a burgundy lid.

Yes, these terms all generally mean the same thing and refer to raw or cooked food scraps and plate scrapings.

The NSW Government has mandated a separate food collection is to be implemented for households by July 2030, and for businesses and institutions in stages from July 2026.

It is also important for the environment. Approximately 48% of all the red bins produced by our households is food waste. If that food waste is placed in the red bin and sent to landfill it degrades and creates methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Food waste can also be recycled - turned into compost to be used in farms, parks and sports fields or animal food. Diverting food waste from landfill will also help extend the life of existing Sydney landfills that are already at critically low capacities.

When food breaks down in landfill, it creates methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. It also wastes all the water, energy, and resources used to grow, transport, and store that food. By keeping food out of landfill, we can reduce harmful emissions, save valuable resources, and make better use of our waste.

Sydney landfill is estimated to be at capacity within the next 7 years. The diversion of food from landfill will assist in extending the life of landfills.

We would like to keep you up to date with the progress of the pilot via email, however you need to register and provide your email to enable us to provide email updates.

If you wish to receive email updates on the pilot and keep up to date, please use the "Register for email updates" via the main page.

Council have created an exclusive online pilot hub that can be accessed via the QR code on all correspondence. This has a 'how to' video, register to receive regular email updates and local information popup dates/times. You can also contact Council on 1300 434 434.