What the service includes

Each site gets the same starter kit and the same weekly routine:

• A kitchen caddy
• Certified compostable liners (AS 4736)
• Signage for the kitchen
• A 120L bin, collected weekly on a fixed day

The caddy sits in the kitchen and empties into the bin out the back. Our collection partner runs the trucks. We run the service: setting it up, answering your questions and billing you.

What it costs

The price is $45 a bin a week, ex GST, plus a fuel levy of 9.93% shown as its own line. Each weekly lift covers up to 20kg, and above that it is 44c per kg. Billing is monthly by default and annual is available on request. There is a contract, and you can cancel with notice. The same price applies in Sydney and the Hunter.

What goes in the bin

Food goes in: peels, coffee grounds, food left on plates, bread, dairy, and meat and bones. Packaging, plastic, glass, cans and any liner that is not certified compostable stay out. A short briefing for staff on day one covers most of it, and the signage does the rest.

How the NSW rules apply in the Hunter

The NSW food waste rules apply across the state, so the same thresholds apply in Newcastle as in Sydney. They are based on the total size of your general waste bins in a week:

• From 1 July 2026: 3,960L
• From 1 July 2028: 1,980L
• From 1 July 2030: 720L

Whether your site is covered also depends on the type of premises. We explain how to count your bins on our NSW food waste rules page and in our post on what the NSW business food waste rules mean. The source is the NSW EPA. This is general information, not legal advice.

What changes day to day

Very little. Food waste goes into the caddy instead of the general waste bin, and the caddy empties into the 120L bin at the end of the day. Your general waste bin gets lighter, and your team gets used to the routine within a few shifts.

If you want help getting the team on board, we also run workshops on food waste, compost and growing, in Sydney and the Hunter. They are for anyone, and they are a good way to show a team where the food waste ends up. See the workshops page for details.

Is your address on a route?

We collect food waste across Newcastle and the Hunter, but not every address is on a route. Send us your address and we will tell you whether we can collect, and which day. If we cannot yet, we will say so plainly.

Where the food waste goes

Food waste is composted, and the compost goes back into growing food. We explain each step in how food waste becomes food.

Starting a collection

You can read the full detail, including the questions people ask most, on our weekly food waste collection page. When you are ready, tell us about your site, and we will reply within two business days.

Prices and rules checked 10 October 2026. 89 tonnes is food waste collected from Hunter businesses, June 2021 to August 2026.

What a week looks like

You get a kitchen caddy, certified compostable liners, signage for the kitchen and a 120L bin. The caddy lives on the bench. When it is full, the liner goes into the 120L bin out the back. We collect that bin on the same day every week, and we set the day when the service starts.

That is the whole routine. There is no sorting at the end of the day and no separate trip for you to make.

What goes in, and what stays out

Food goes in. Packaging does not.

• In: fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds, food left on plates, bread, dairy, and meat and bones.
• Out: packaging, plastic, glass, cans, and any liner that is not certified compostable.

The liners matter. We use liners certified to AS 4736, the Australian standard for compostable plastics, so that the whole bag can be composted with the food. A regular plastic bag spoils a bin, because it cannot be composted.

What it costs

The price is $45 a bin a week, ex GST, plus a fuel levy of 9.93% that appears as its own line on the invoice. Each weekly lift covers up to 20kg. Above that, it is 44c per kg. Billing is monthly by default, and annual billing is available on request. There is a contract, and you can cancel with notice.

Wet food waste is heavy, so how close you get to 20kg depends on your volume. If you are unsure, ask us when you enquire and we will talk it through before you sign up.

Space, smell and staff

A few habits keep it easy:

• Empty the caddy into the bin at close, rather than letting it sit overnight.
• Keep the lid of the 120L bin shut, and keep the bin in the shade if you can.
• Put the signage where the team can see it, next to the caddy.
• Walk new staff through the in and out lists in their first shift.

These are common-sense habits rather than rules. If space out the back is tight, mention it when you enquire.

Do the NSW rules apply to a cafe?

NSW now requires some businesses to separate food waste, and the requirement widens in steps. It depends on how much general waste your site puts out each week, counted by the total size of your general waste bins:

• From 1 July 2026: 3,960L a week
• From 1 July 2028: 1,980L a week
• From 1 July 2030: 720L a week, which is three 240L wheelie bins

A single cafe with a few bins may sit below the first two thresholds today, but it is worth counting yours rather than guessing, and the 2030 threshold is low. The NSW EPA publishes the rules at epa.nsw.gov.au, and we have a plain-English version on our NSW food waste rules page. This is general information, not legal advice.

Some sites start a collection before the rules reach them. It keeps food waste out of the general bin, and it is easier to settle into a routine early than to change one in a hurry.

Getting started

Tell us your address and how many bins you have now, and we will confirm your collection day and send the kit. You can read the full details, including the questions people ask most, on our weekly food waste collection page, or start a collection directly.

Rules and prices checked 10 October 2026.

Step one: the caddy

It starts in the kitchen. Fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds, bread, dairy, meat and bones, and food left on plates go into a kitchen caddy lined with a certified compostable liner (AS 4736). Packaging, plastic, glass and cans stay out. Keeping them out is what makes the next steps possible, because anything that cannot be composted has to be picked out later, or spoils the batch.

Step two: the bin and the collection

The caddy empties into a 120L bin out the back. We collect that bin every week, on a fixed day. Collection is what turns a kitchen habit into a system. Since June 2021 we have collected 89 tonnes of food waste from Hunter businesses, and the service now runs in Sydney as well.

Step three: composting

The food waste is composted. Composting is the controlled breakdown of food and other organic material by microbes, with air, moisture and time. What comes out the other end is a dark, crumbly material that feeds soil. The compost goes back into growing food.

Why compost rather than landfill? Food waste that is buried without air breaks down differently, and the nutrients in it are lost to the soil. Composting keeps those nutrients in use. It is the same reason a gardener keeps a compost bin.

This is also why we ask for certified compostable liners and a clear in and out list. A bin that is mostly food and a little plastic is a problem for everyone further down the line. A bin that is only food and compostable liners is easy to handle. The people who benefit most from a clean bin are the ones you will never meet, which is part of what makes it a shared effort.

Step four: the harvest

Compost is only useful if it gets used, and growing is where the loop closes. We do not run our own farm today. We did: Feedback Organic began on a farm in the Barrington Tops in 2013, then ran urban farms in Newcastle. Through the urban farms, we kept more than 2.5 million litres of food waste out of landfill, and the farms produced more than 45 tonnes of food, up to 2023.

Today partner farms like Pocket City Farms host farm visits, workshops and education. That is where people can see the growing end of the loop and ask questions of the people doing it.

Why we call it a loop

A line goes one way: food, then waste, then landfill. A loop comes back. The food waste from your kitchen becomes compost, the compost helps grow food, and the food ends up on a plate somewhere, which makes food waste again. You do not need to see all of it for it to be real, but it helps to know it is there.

It also means the kitchens that separate food waste are part of something shared. When a site sends its food waste into the loop, it is one of the loop, alongside every other site doing the same. We think that is worth saying out loud.

How to join in

If you run a site that produces food waste, you can start with one bin. See how our weekly food waste collection works, what it costs and what is in the starter kit. If you would rather see the growing end first, our workshops cover food waste, compost and growing, and you can read more about where we started on the about page.

Figures: 2.5 million litres and 45+ tonnes are from the farm era to 2023 (Feedback Organic Prospectus 2022 and 2023). 89 tonnes is food waste collected from Hunter businesses, June 2021 to August 2026.

The short version

If your site is one of the premises the rules cover, and your general waste bins add up to more than a set weekly volume, you need a separate collection for food waste. The weekly volume drops in three steps:

• From 1 July 2026: 3,960L of general waste bin capacity a week. The EPA gives six 660L bins as an example.
• From 1 July 2028: 1,980L a week. The EPA gives three 660L bins as an example.
• From 1 July 2030: 720L a week, a single 660L bin, or three 240L bins.

The first step is already in force. The source for all of this is the NSW EPA page on the food organics mandates. Check it for the exact wording, because that page is the authority and this one is a summary.

Which premises are covered

The rules apply to supermarkets, to premises where food or drink is prepared or provided, and to certain institutions. The EPA lists the premises types in full, so read its list rather than relying on a summary. The volume test applies on top of that: a covered premises below the threshold is not yet required to separate food waste.

How to count your bins

You are counting the capacity of your general waste bins, not what you actually put out. The EPA describes the thresholds as residual bin capacity per week.

1. List each general waste bin and its size in litres (a 240L wheelie bin is 240; a 660L bin is 660).
2. Add the sizes together.
3. Compare the total against 3,960, 1,980 and 720.

If some of your bins are emptied more than once a week, check the EPA page for how it counts them. Our NSW food waste rules page has a short version of this check.

A worked example

Say a site has three 660L general waste bins. That is 1,980L, which meets the 1,980L threshold that applies from July 2028 (and sits well above 720L for 2030). If the site is a covered premises, it would need a separate food waste collection by 1 July 2028.

A smaller site with three 240L bins has 720L, which meets the 2030 threshold. A site with two 240L bins has 480L, which is under all three for now.

What counts as food waste

For our collection, food waste means fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds, food left on plates, bread, dairy, and meat and bones. Packaging, plastic, glass, cans and liners that are not certified compostable are not food waste, and they stay out of the food waste bin. The EPA has its own definition for the rules, so check it if you need to be exact.

Who checks

As we read the EPA guidance, local councils check compliance for most business premises, and the EPA checks government-run facilities. If you are unsure which applies to your site, ask your council or the EPA directly.

What to do about it

1. Count your bins using the steps above, and note which date your site reaches.
2. Talk to your building manager or landlord if you share bins, since they may arrange the general waste service.
3. Set up a weekly food waste collection so food has its own bin.
4. Put up signage and brief your team on what goes in the caddy and what stays out.

We collect food waste every week in Sydney and the Hunter. Our weekly food waste collection page sets out the kit, the price and how a week works. If you have a larger site or several sites, our advisory service can plan the program with you.

A note on sources

Different articles quote slightly different numbers, because they round or convert bin sizes in different ways. We have used the EPA litre figures. If you see another number, check the EPA page above.

Source: NSW EPA, FOGO mandates and rollout. Checked 10 October 2026.