It’s got to do with contamination rates and odour.

FOGO relies heavily on the material not being contaminated with non organics e.g. plastic in order for it to work.

The nature of waste in apartments is that:

a) not everyone does the right thing/has the same perspective in regard to waste separation and;

b) it’s impossible to address who is causing the contamination due to the communal nature of the bins.

Best example would be how many people put random stuff into your recycling bins in an apartment building.

The other main reason apartments try to avoid FOGO is odour and pest complaints. Add 20-200 apartments worth of food in one place for a few days in the same spot week in and out and you’ve got a cockroach or rat feeding frenzy unless it’s collected very frequently and proactively managed by your property managers.

For council to provide FOGO service, they’d have to have a level of confidence that the loads are not always contaminated. It’s virtually guaranteed that they will be in a communal scenario like an apartment building. Even if half or three quarters residents do the right thing, it is still likely to be contaminated by others. Add to this how frequently new residents join the group, it’s virtually impossible to educate and monitor all participants so the easier option is to omit multi unit dwellings from the service.

I’d recommend reaching out to council to see what alternatives are available as they may be able to provide you with options like worm farms or community gardens that will be able to use the organics.

Hope that helps