How STG Global’s new partnership with American company New Way Trucks is set to revolutionise organic waste collection in Australia.

There’s a revolution going on in the way that organic waste is being collected and managed in Australia. Local authorities are now moving away from traditional waste management models – i.e. squashing all waste together in massive landfills – towards greener, more sustainable systems. And a large component in this shift is the collection of food organics and garden organics: aka FOGO.

STG Global have recently formed a partnership with American company New Way Trucks to produce a range of state-of-the-art waste collection trucks especially designed to efficiently cope with FOGO collection. So what, exactly, is FOGO? And how is STG Global leading the charge in FOGO collection with its new ROTO PAC truck? Let’s tip out a few facts and have a look at them. 

What the F is FOGO?

According to the Australian Bioplastices Association, Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) is considered to be “any food waste including fruit and vegetable scraps, processed food and leftovers from meals…” along with such things as “grass clippings, flowers and herbs, small branches and leaves.” 

To this tasty salad you can also add paper towels, compostable bags (think doggy doos from the park), compostable plates, coffee grounds and tea bags. Yummy!

Creative compost and much mulch

Virtually all of the greenhouse gases emitted by landfills come from the decomposition of organic matter. And apart from creating methane, the nutrients contained in this organic matter are locked away in the landfills, mixed in with all of the inorganic junk that we chuck away. 

But by collecting FOGO separately from all of the other rubbish, councils and landfill operations can use this organic material to create highly nutritious compost and mulch. This can then be used to replenish gardens and farmland, thus recycling the nutrients in the way nature intended.

Separate FOGO Collection is the Answer

One of the problems of collecting FOGO separately from generic waste has always been the cost of owning and maintaining a separate fleet of dedicated FOGO collection vehicles. But that is all about to change with the introduction of the ROTO PAC collection system to the STG Global range.

A world first from New Way Trucks

The ROTO PAC system is designed to accommodate both FOGO waste collection and solid municipal waste collection. It does this by utilising a self-cleaning auger system to transfer waste from its collection bin through into its compaction chamber.

The auger is able to move waste three times faster than the traditional “pack-panel” design that has been the norm for waste collection trucks for decades. And because the system is able to cope with both municipal waste and organic waste, it removes the need for local bodies to run separate fleets of trucks. 

According to STG Global’s Managing Director, Ross Yendle, the development of this multi-use system for the separate collection of FOGO and standard waste will be a boon for efficient management of organic waste.

“More and more local councils are looking at collecting organic waste,” he says. The ROTO PAC system is ideal for this, he continues, and has the added bonus that councils won’t have to buy separate trucks because the ROTO PAC system “does it all.” 

STG Global’s New Partnership Takes FOGO Collection to the Next Level.

The new ROTO PAC system, developed by New Way at their Iowa facility in the US, will be fitted to new truck bodies in STG Global’s new 2,000 square metre manufacturing facility in Dandenong South. In addition to the ROTO PAC vehicles, STG Global will also be bringing other New Way collection truck models to Australia and the wider SE Asian market. These models include The Viper and The Diamondback rear-loading refuse trucks, along with The Mamba, which is a compact side-loading refuse truck.

However, it is the ROTO PAC system that will revolutionise the collection of FOGO waste in Australia. 

The self-cleaning auger 

The innovative auger system employed in the ROTO PAC collection machinery uses a simple blade fitted above the auger to keep the auger blades clean. This prevents solid waste from accumulating on the auger, assuring blockages don’t occur during the collection cycle and making it easy for the mechanism to be cleaned following a day’s work. 

Automated and semi-automated. 

The ROTO PAC system allows the operator to choose from two different collection procedures. The fully-automated operation option oversees the entire collection process: from lifting a bin off the roadside, to its movement into the storage compartment.  There is also a set of customisable, semi-automated parametres that can be chosen according to the type of waste being collected, the layout of the terrain and how congested the collection area is. 

Goodbye to bin juice

The infamous Australian Ibis might be a fan of bin juice…but no-one else is! The ROTO PAC machines incorporate a sealed bin system that prevents those leakages of nasty, odoriferous bin juice which are often a problem with conventional waste collection vehicles. 

Standard waste one day; FOGO the next

With the ROTO PAC system fitted to an STG Global-configured chassis, local authorities can minimise the number of vehicles that they have in their fleets. The ROTO Pac system allows easy transition from conventional urban waste to FOGO waste on a day-to-day basis. This not only eliminates the need for separate vehicles: it also means that maintenance costs are lowered, supply-chain disruptions for spare parts can be avoided, and depreciation of assets can be reduced by having fewer vehicles in the fleet.

STG Global is Leading the Way.

With the global waste management market projected to grow to over $750 billion by 2026, STG Global’s partnership with New Way Trucks look set introduce a world-leading collection system for FOGO to Australia.