FO stands for food organics: food waste only. FOGO stands for food organics and garden organics: food waste and garden waste together, usually in the green lid bin at home. The NSW business food waste rules require a separate food organics (FO) collection, while councils must give households a FOGO service by 2030.
FO: food organics
Food organics means food waste: peels, coffee grounds, food left on plates, bread, dairy, meat and bones. A food organics collection takes food only, often in a smaller bin, because food is heavy and is produced in a kitchen, not a garden. Most commercial food waste services are FO services.
FOGO: food and garden organics
FOGO combines food waste with garden waste such as grass clippings, leaves and prunings. It is the model councils use for households: the green lid garden bin starts taking food as well. The NSW EPA lists which councils already offer a FOGO service, which have one planned, and which offer garden organics only.
Which one do the business rules require?
The NSW EPA says relevant premises, such as supermarkets, food and drink businesses and some institutions, must have a source-separated food organics waste collection in place, starting with the largest sites from 1 July 2026. In other words, the business rules are about food, not garden waste. The thresholds are based on general waste bin capacity each week: 3,960L from 1 July 2026, 1,980L from 1 July 2028 and 720L from 1 July 2030.
The household rules are separate. Councils must provide a FOGO service to households that get a red lid general waste service by 1 July 2030. The same law covers both, which is why the two are often discussed together, and why the EPA's pages call the whole program "FOGO" even where a business only needs FO.
For the full detail, including exemptions, read our guide to the NSW food waste rules.
Does it matter which one I use?
For a business, the rules ask for food organics to be separated, collected at least weekly and transported separately from other waste. A food-only service meets that. If your site also produces garden waste, such as grounds maintenance at a large site, ask your provider how they handle it, and do not assume it can go in the food bin.
The rules on what goes in are the same for both: food (and, for FOGO, garden waste) only, with certified compostable liners (AS 4736) or no liner. Packaging, paper towels and coffee cups stay out of both. See what goes in a commercial food waste bin.
Why your council's FOGO status still matters to a business
Even though the business rules are separate, your council's household service affects your site in two ways.
- Your staff and customers may already know the habit. In council areas with household FOGO, such as the City of Sydney, the Inner West and Randwick, many people already separate food at home, so a kitchen caddy at work feels familiar.
- It can affect exemptions. The EPA's time-limited regional exemption, until 1 July 2028, applies to listed council areas outside Greater Sydney that did not yet provide a household FOGO or food organics service as at 30 June 2026. Newcastle is one of them.
Our area pages note each council's household service status, for example the Inner West and Newcastle and the Hunter.
In short
| FO | FOGO | |
|---|---|---|
| What goes in | Food only | Food and garden waste |
| Who it is for | Businesses under the NSW rules | Households, through councils |
| When | From 1 July 2026, in three steps by size | By 1 July 2030 |
We run a food organics collection: a kitchen caddy, certified compostable liners, signage and a 120L bin, collected every week. See how our weekly food waste collection works.
Sources: NSW EPA, FOGO mandates and rollout, exemptions and NSW FOGO services map and council list. Checked 11 October 2026.