Organics Waste Facility Coming to Southern Grampians

Published on 09 July 2026

Southern Grampians Shire Council is taking a major step forward in sustainable waste management, with construction of key infrastructure underway for a new organics processing facility at the Hamilton Transfer Station.

Thousands of tonnes of FOGO and green waste currently collected by Council either from the FOGO bin collection, green waste drop offs at transfer stations or effluent from the Hamilton Regional Livestock Exchange (HRLX) will be converted into valuable compost and soil products each year using six In-Vessel Rapid Composting (IVRC) systems, purpose-built to process FOGO and livestock effluent waste.

These systems were constructed offsite in Ballarat and will be relocated over the coming months to the Hamilton Transfer Station, with operations expected to begin in Spring.

The plant will process more than 5,000 tonnes of food waste, garden organics and livestock by-products annually, with EPA approval already in place to expand capacity to around 15,000 tonnes as demand grows.

Southern Grampians Shire Council Mayor Dennis Heslin said the project represented one of the most significant waste management initiatives ever undertaken by Council.

"Australia's waste system is under enormous pressure, and councils need to find smarter, more sustainable ways to manage increasing volumes of material," Cr Heslin said.

"This facility will allow us to solve several challenges at once by giving us a local solution for processing organic waste. In time, this will significantly reduce transport and disposal costs, ease pressure on the Hamilton Regional Livestock Exchange and create an opportunity to generate new income through processing services and the sale of high-quality compost products.

“The offsite pod construction is nearing completion with Council working to develop the site for the pod installation at the Transfer Station.”

The project builds on the success of Council's Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection service, introduced in 2020, which now services more than 6,500 households across the municipality.

Organic material collected through kerbside FOGO bins; transfer stations and the Hamilton Regional Livestock Exchange will all be processed locally rather than transported more than 100 kilometres for treatment.

As one of Australia's busiest livestock exchanges, the Hamilton Regional Livestock Exchange processes up to one million sheep and 50,000 cattle each year, producing a substantial organic waste stream that has traditionally been costly to transport and dispose of.

That material will be converted into commercially certified compost, returning valuable nutrients to agricultural land and supporting a more circular approach to waste management.

For more information on this or any of our other projects, check out our website. To stay up to date on Council news, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Top of Form

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