Michael Mobbs - Sydney's Sustainable House

Waste forum, Addison Road Centre, Marrickville

At 7 pm Thursday 15 July the Addison Rd Community Centre, Marrickville will hold a community forum on waste:  see their web page where it says:

Addison Road Environment Week

 July 12 - 18th

Community Forum   waste: is it sustainable?

July 15^th 7 pm at HUT 3 ECCC

Developing a workable sustainable waste strategy for the Addison Rd Centre will be part of ARC moving towards 100% environmental sustainability.

Reduce, reuse and recycle will be part of the strategy but do we need to go further and stop waste from leaving the site?  How can we minimise the amount of waste that we generate and maximise opportunities for recovering materials? How can a waste strategy contribute to the overall environmental sustainability?  What are the options available? How can we link waste with food production? Which ones are appropriate for ARC and how much will it cost?

From July, ARC will be responsible for its own waste disposal making it necessary to change the waste patterns at the Centre and learn new cultural practices. Come along for a discussion of the issues. 

Bernie Hobbs will MC ARC’s Community Forum a Marrickville resident and popular judge on ABC TV’s, The New Inventors, Catalysts and on ABC radio around the country.

With a background in medical research, environmental writing and science teaching, Bernie tackles tough and technical subjects and brings the driest topics alive for lay or expert audiences. Bernie has won awards for the kids TV show the experiMENTALS, and for her infamous greenhouse website Planet Slayer - where you find out what age you should have died at so you don’t use more than your share of the planet.

Speakers:

Michael Mobbs is an architect/consultant who works with private and public sector developers and their project teams to design, specify, and obtain approvals and funding for sustainable projects. Michael designed the systems, obtained approvals for, and project managed the renovation of Sydney’s Sustainable House, a nineteenth century inner Sydney terrace which since 1996 has provided all its own water, sewage and energy needs.

Peter Carroll is from SCRAP -A non-profit company which helps schools, non-profit bodies and private individuals and companies to become environmentally-friendly and to understand how to do this better.

Mark McKenzie is the Waste Strategy Manager for the City of Sydney assisting with master plans for advanced waste recovery, processing and City’s renewable energy plan. The presentation will address the City’s approach to advanced waste treatment and how it integrates with the proposed trigeneration network to provide City with 70% of its own electricity needs.

http://www.addisonrdcentre.com.au/

Will be interesting,

May the waste not be with us,

Michael

Growing interest in Chippendale compost trial

Steven sent me another email from his blog, Life in Chippendale, about the road gardens, particularly about the compost bins and it’s here (anonymous):

Hi Chippendale,
 I am from Ultimo and involved with setting up a community garden there.I was impressed by your composting system on the green in your community and wondered what type of bins you used and there rough cost.
 Also wondered how you guys manage the system as a group.
cheers
SA

I’ve answered it but do spread the word: we garden in the roads here each Friday from 9 am to 11 am, and most Saturdays from 10 am to 12 noon and sometimes Sundays.  Say ”G’day” whenever you see someone using the compost bins or gardening and we’ll answer any questions you have and we’d love you to join us.

May the gardens be with us,

Michael

Seoul City’s freeway that became a river

Seoul City put a freeway over a river then, in 2007, over 30 years later, demolished the freeway to restore the river.  

They found that getting rid of the black road cooled the city in summer, restored conversations to the heart of the city and that the cars reduced in number and vehicle trip times shortened.

To see this inspiring story go to ABC iView - 

E2: Transport Episode 4 

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/589467 

The Mayor uses words and language which are music to me; he says we cannot live in cities unless they are sustainable, that business cannot prosper without sustainable cities, and that it’s possible to reduce roads and freeways and traffic if we choose to - and that’s what they did.

Cool roads, roads with less cars, roads for humans to pause, talk and regain their dignity - they’re coming; thank you Seoul.

Michael

Coffee and knitting

There’s a shop at 413 King Street called, Coffee and a Yarn, where you can have a coffee and buy wool and knit.  A friend bought some beautiful wool there (they have local organic wool, and some lovely wool from Ireland, too).  

I enjoyed the sight and stillness of folks sitting and knitting while having a bite to eat or a coffee.

Just a thought,

Michael

Moth’s new house

A moth has made a house in the fejoia tree outside my house and this photo show it hanging there, hard to see, well built but without development approval the little law breaker.

There’s lots of snails on the paw paw trees and other trees; the sooner the midyen berry bushes and other bird-attracting plants get growing and bring the little birds here to eat these pests the better.

Ahhhh, such a busy world out in the road gardens, even in winter,

Michael

Another volunteer for road gardening

Steve sent this note from his blog, Life in Chippendale (kept anonymous):

Hi there,

I'm writing to express my interest in getting involved/volunteering/learning about your group.

I do a lot of street gardening in Surry Hills, currently I'm working on my dream of greening Cleveland St.  I use orphaned plants, cuttings, seeds, whatever I can find really.  Having come through Chippendale on my bicycle a few times recently I've noticed all the amazing things; the compost bins, the street plantings, and the great community atmosphere…  I'm extremely interested in how you got the council on board for each of your projects.  

Ideally I would like to volunteer with you and then take some of what I've learned and enable my own community in neighbouring Surry Hills with similar initiatives.

Please let me know how I can be of assistance.  I have no formal training in horticulture however I love getting my hands dirty and have been gardening as a hobby for many years.  I have a degree in Media Arts & Production from UTS and currently work in film and video so I may have other skills you may be interested in utilising too.

Yours in faith
KG

We’ll be gardening every Friday from 9 am on - see the previous blog below.

Gardening grows things inside,

Michael

Join us for gardening each Friday

Join us for road gardening each Friday:  knock on 58 Myrtle at 9 am or look for us after then in Myrtle Street or Peace Park.

Bring gloves or we may have a spare pair.

It’s winter so we’ll be:

- keeping the compost bins turning over

- putting out compost or mulch to keep the plants warm and well fed

- pruning the citrus

- making raised bed gardens

- saving seeds and planting seeds or small plants

If you don’t know how we’ll show you; if you know more we’ll be delighted to listen … . join us,

Michael

Raintanks for Peace Park

Council is putting in two 10,000 litre rain tanks to water Peace Park.  They’ll be underground.  Water will fill them from the road.  

So water that would otherwise be wasted and pollute Blackwattle Bay will now be put to good use.

The pump to irrigate the park from the tanks will be solar powered.

Tanks for that Sydney Council,

Michael

Peace Park Compost feedback

Sydney City Council’s Waste Officer, Michael Neville, has put a sign up on the compost bins inviting people to contact him for information and with feedback about the bins.

Here’s one Michael has received (kept anonymous)

Good morning.  There is a sign up at the Peace Park asking residents to email if we use the compost bins.  We do.  Our family of 3 (soon to be 4) takes compost to the bins most days on our walk with the dog.  

Our 2 year old (G) knows that when he has finished his banana or orange that the skins go in the compost bin on the bench and then we take it to the park. 

It has become one of the highlights of our daily routine for him and for us watching his delight at opening the lid, watching the steam rise and then lifting him up to peek inside to see what others have put in there too.  

We thought about getting our own compost bin for the backyard but love the idea of community rather than private amenities.  As we play on the equipment near by he recognises others dropping their compost in the bins and points this out. This reinforces that this is not something that we do but that the community does and we get to talk about it.

Hope you’re not thinking of taking them away.

Regards - S

Michael’s reply was:

Hi S,

Thanks so much for getting in touch. The trial is for a year until February 2011. If it is successful and we have managed to develop sufficient skills in the community for local residents to manage it themselves, it will continue on.

I’ll keep your details and stay in touch - we’re planning to do some evaluation on people’s motivations, how much food they put through the system etc over the next few months (20-30 households). We do regular maintenance every Friday morning and you’re welcome to come and chat.

We also planning a free community composting workshop in late September / early October

The bins have some cockroach issues at present. They’re working too well and generating so much heat that the cockroaches have bred up in the aeration tubes. We’ll be working on minimising this problem over the coming weeks. The cockroaches do not harm the compost, but can be a turn off for people.

Regards

Michael

If anyone wants to contact Michael Neville his email is:  mneville@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au

May the compost be with us,

Michael