Unprepared businesses may face $500,000 fines as NSW food waste mandate looms

Veolia provides food waste infrastructure, systems, free waste assessment, bins, collections, and staff training to meet new legislation. 

Veolia’s expertise at every part of the food organics process guarantees your food waste will be sorted properly by your staff and processed with world-beating technology to create fertiliser or compost good enough to be used by farmers and in your home garden.

With the NSW Government’s Food Waste mandate just weeks away, NSW businesses must urgently organise a dedicated food waste collection or potentially face $500,000 fines.

The mandate officially kicks in for the state’s largest waste generators from July 1, 2026. Under the new legislation, any business or institution — including supermarkets, cafes, pubs, hospitals, and schools — generating 3,840 litres or more general waste every week will be legally required to separate food waste from their general rubbish or face steep fines.

"This is one of the most significant waste policy reforms in Australia's history, but with the deadline just weeks away, it is clear from enquiries we are receiving that some businesses are still not prepared. Time is running out. If your business handles, prepares, or sells food, the clock is ticking," said Veolia ANZ Chief Operating Officer - Resource Recovery Carmen Loecherer.

To help businesses be ready for the change Veolia has designed a suite of mandate-ready services that place efficiency, potential cost-savings, and the circular economy front and centre for its customers. These include a free waste assessment, advanced depackaging solutions, access to a digital hub to manage services 24/7 and comprehensive staff training. Veolia also provides wheelie bins for businesses and has an increased fleet of food waste collection trucks ready to go. 

"We don't just help businesses avoid hefty fines; we provide the infrastructure and expertise to make waste management seamless, and importantly, a value-adding part of their daily operations," Loecherer said.

By recycling heavy food-dense waste and diverting it away from landfills, our customers can unlock significant cost savings on general waste disposal while dramatically boosting their ESG credentials. It’s a win-win solution for the bottom line, farmers, and the environment.

Veolia doesn’t just provide the services for business, it delivers guaranteed capacity through market-leading infrastructure that ensures food waste doesn’t go to landfill. These advanced organic processing facilities include EarthPower at Camellia which accepts food waste only to produce soil improver and enough electricity to power 4,000 homes, and Woodlawn Eco Precinct that currently processes 16,000 tonnes of food organics and garden organics every year with a licence to expand this to 40,000 tonnes. 

Both businesses produce high value, organic fertiliser that can be used for landscaping, agriculture and even home gardens. It’s truly the circular economy in action, creating resource security for fertilisers in the midst of a global shortage. 

Despite the available infrastructure, the biggest hurdle for businesses will be contamination at the bin level, such as plastic packaging being mixed with food scraps.

Contamination is the biggest threat to organic recycling. To combat this, we can provide advanced depackaging solutions for complex waste streams, which separate organic content from packaging materials to ensure we get a clean feedstock. But the first line of defence has to be at the source.

"You need the right equipment, reliable collections, and comprehensive staff education to produce the best food organics material. That’s why we are working hand-in-hand with our clients to tailor food waste collection systems so they can seamlessly transition their operations, remain compliant, and deliver clean material that farmers will be proud to use."
 

When Does the NSW FOGO Mandate Start?

The mandate will roll out gradually between 2026 and 2030, based on the total weekly general waste bin capacity of your business.

Key dates are:

• 1 July 2026: Businesses with ≥ 3,840L weekly general waste capacity.
• 1 July 2028: Businesses with ≥ 1,920L weekly general waste capacity.
• 1 July 2030: Businesses with ≥ 660L weekly general waste capacity.

These thresholds are calculated based on the total bin capacity your business uses each week - not the volume of waste actually generated. If you are unsure where your business sits, the NSW EPA FOGO Waste Calculator can assist.

Which Businesses Will Be Affected?

The FOGO Mandate applies to businesses and institutions that prepare, sell, or handle food. These organisations will need to implement source-separated food waste collection systems and ensure organic waste is diverted from general waste streams.

Key sectors include, but are not limited to: