# Circular procurement in action: Council case studies
*Activity type: book*

## Chapter 1: City of Stonnington's Kerbside Organics Buy Back

*Figure: Public signage from City of Stonnington about their FOGO initiative*

The City of Stonnington, in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, has incorporated circular principles into their kerbside Food and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection contract.

The council initially undertook trials of good quality compost made from the organics collected across the municipality as part of their kerbside FOGO collections. It was important that these composts met the relevant Australian Standards. Nearly 500 m3 of mulch was applied to garden beds, nature strips, parks and gardens and in fixing holes and trip hazards on lawns in 20 different locations.

Through close monitoring and evaluation by the Parks and Gardens team, they discovered real benefits to using the FOGO compost. These included taking longer to break down compared to other traditional composts that had previously been used, less compaction of the soil, increased weed suppression and better water retention, even during a hot dry summer.

The City of Stonnington also used this initiative as an opportunity to promote and educate the community on the benefits of the FOGO bin and the importance of participating in the service and minimising contamination. They are also hoping these initiatives will assist in growing the residential market for recycled organics.

The City of Stonnington also used this trial project as an opportunity to identify barriers in their current procurement process which were impacting council buying back kerbside collected organics. They then applied circular procurement principles when updating their existing contract, to better enable council to buy back recycled organics from their FOGO processing provider. This was a lengthy process but has set them up to more easily purchase FOGO compost in the future.

Based on the success of this trial project and their updated garden waste contract, the City of Stonnington’s Parks and Gardens team are continuing to buy back and use FOGO compost in parks and gardens across the municipality.

## Chapter 2: Surf Coast Shire’s Circular Economy Action Plan

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Figure: Circular economy in action at Surf Coast Shire
Image courtesy of href="https://www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/Environment/Circular-Economy/Circular-Economy-Action-Plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/Environment/Circular-Economy/Circular-Economy-Action-Plan)*

Surf Coast Shire, a coastal municipality in regional southwest Victoria, developed a Circular Economy Action Plan. Within the plan there are multiple levers for driving circular procurement focused on waste avoidance, reuse, innovation and collaboration, creating systems change and advocacy. These include: 

- Targets to help drive the transition to a Circular economy including for increasing recycled materials use in a range of council projects and embodied carbon reduction based on the use of recycled materials.
*See table below from Surf Coast Shire's Circular Economy Action Plan 2027 - 2030.*

- Specifying a preference of use of products and materials that contain recycled content for new projects, asset renewal, and maintenance.

- Ensuring data on key procurement items is captured on Council’s top 10 spend items, that could be replaced by alternative recycled content options across new projects, asset renewals and maintenance.

- Reviewing strategic Council documents and processes to embed circular economy principles for a range of documents including Procurement Planning document and Procurement Policy

- Document options for Council to participate in share economy services such as leasing schemes to prevent the need to unnecessarily purchase items, which will help reduce waste.

![](../../files/mod_book/chapter/73/image%20%282%29-2.png)

Find out more about Surf Coast Shire's Circular Economy Action Plan:
title="https://www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/files/assets/public/v/1/02-property/recycling-and-waste/final-circular-economy-action-plan-2024-2027-5-june-2024.pdf" href="https://www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/files/assets/public/v/1/02-property/recycling-and-waste/final-circular-economy-action-plan-2024-2027-5-june-2024.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/files/assets/public/v/1/02-property/recycling-and-waste/final-circular-economy-action-plan-2024-2027-5-june-2024.pdf)

## Chapter 3: Traralgon road resurfacing using recycled glass

Access to recycled products and materials can sometimes be limited by geographic location, particularly for councils and projects in regional areas. The following case study highlights how a council in Gippsland, in South-East Victoria, partnered with a local recycling processor to develop a locally produced asphalt product.

  

https://youtu.be/Tbscly58M-c?si=CvcflKfzuEbwYNOc
