What a council FOGO service can handle that home compost can't
Council FOGO processing happens at an industrial scale and higher temperature than a home compost bin typically reaches, which means it can safely break down meat, dairy, bones, and citrus — all things that are generally discouraged in a home compost heap because they attract pests or break down too slowly at backyard scale.
What home composting is still better for
If you garden, home compost turns scraps into usable soil for your own yard on a timeline you control, with no truck involved. Vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells, and garden trimmings are all well suited to it.
A reasonable way to split it
Many households that have both simply send meat, dairy, bones, and anything they're not confident about into the FOGO bin, and keep straightforward plant-based scraps for the home compost — using each system for what it's actually best at, rather than treating it as an either/or choice.
Check whether your own council runs a FOGO service, and what it accepts specifically, via our address lookup — this varies genuinely by council, and not every council that has a green bin runs it as FOGO rather than garden-only (see our lid colour guide).