FOGO Waste Crisis in WA South West: Solutions Sought

0:00Western Australia's Southwest is facing a real mess with its waste management. The food organics and garden organics bins, or Fogo for short, started over a decade ago to cut down landfill trash as part of the state's strategy. But now, multiple councils say it's not financially sustainable, and local processing plans have fallen apart, forcing tons of waste to get trucked to. Landfills. Am I, uh, the state government stepped in with a $95 per ton subsidy to haul Fogo waste to Perth for processing. The Shire of Harvey turned it down flat over high-fuel costs, and the city of Bunbury is still crunching the numbers on whether it works. Locals like Jill Cross, from the Darden Up Environmental Action Group, are fired up, calling the council's short-sighted and urging the government to, build a proper plant right there in the region. She points out successful campaigns like containers for change, got people sorting right, some more education and incentives could fix resident buy-in, issues, issues, listeners and even opposition environment spokesman David Bolt,

1:03agree education helps, but he warns a few bad apples contaminating bins can ruin whole. Loads. Bolt, with his background running the Murray Shire, pushes waste to energy as a solid long-term play, like the new pilot plan in Kwanana that could. Handle over 400,000 tons a year, and crank out 38 megawatts of power. He says the state needs to fund whatever key's processing viable regionally. Minister Matthew Swinborn calls his $4,500,000 offer a big step up and stresses local government's own waste services. But he'll keep talking with Southwest councils to sort this out before the system fully collapses. That rap city news today brought to you with AI. I'm Corey, with the story.