Fly food to feed fish and sustain fish populations

Some friends have drawn my attention to Jason Drew, who has been in Australia recently. Jason is based in South Africa’s Cape Town.  He sets up ‘green businesses’ to sustain natural resources, such as fisheries. One of his new businesses is fly farming, turning waste into larvae, and a protein-rich, natural animal feed. To get his ideas Drew reads and travels.  He believes that the world is running out of food.  He says, “Every day, 25,000 people die from starvation,... Read More

App for recycling building ‘waste’

Builders, designers and others looking to use or to recycle building waste now can  use a phone app to do so. Called BuildBITS, once a user downloads it they may take a photo of the surplus products, enter a short description and price – and the product appears for sale in the BuildBITS online marketplace. There are no commissions or fees for sellers and buyers. It can be cheaper for a builder to list, say, waste bricks on BuildBITS for free and give them away rather than spend... Read More

Frankston Council shows leadership with rate rebate for composting

Frankston Council, Victoria, has a run-away success with it’s rate rebate for composting program, Halve Garbage.   The designer of the program, Alison Winn, says: “I originally designed the ‘Halve Garbage Waste’ program and secured a $100 000 grant to roll out a smaller garbage bin service to residents.  Residents who signed up received either a compost bin or a worm farm and a $20 rate reduction.  I think the smaller bin was a 60L bin.  The program incorporated... Read More

Sewage and more sewage

Several questions have come in about sewage. I like that.  We all excrete and the more of us who think about what to do with it the better, I hope, for our Earth’s water, soil and energy. Here’s one: “Hello Michael , A  very good book ………. a lot of information and I will try to do what you have done Yesterday  I  went  to  a home show …. they had a sewerage treatment system but it was only good enough for watering the garden. He... Read More

What kind of sewage system?

Comes this question from yesterday’s tour: HI Michael Thanks for the tour yesterday, was great to see your systems in action! I have a quick question about the sewerage which I forgot to ask: What do you think about composting toilets v. your system for an innner city context such as yours? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Cheers Sarah   My answer: Great question; thank you. A composting toilet was not an option on my small inner city terrace site because: it... Read More

Fun vid: some Chippo gardeners make a pallet into a vertical garden in an hour for Toby’s cafe

Lovely fun vid of some of our gardeners here: enjoy: vimeo.com… Sustainable Communities Plan vimeo.com… Michael Mobbs has a plan to create sustainable suburbs, and he is coming together with Chippendale residents and City of Sydney to make this ha  Read More

Spectacular 2 min vid about water, muck and little critters

It’s by the wonderful film-maker Emma: www.bing.com…   Wow; how good is that! Thanks, Emma. May the little critters be with you, M  Read More

Another day, another composter

Got home tonight to find this lovely email:   Hi Michael, I’ve seen you today giving a presentation to Canon employees. It was a very good one and it certainly made people think about the energy and water being wasted in our everyday lives. Many thanks! I would like to let you know my thoughts on coffee grounds composting. Many small, local cafes do not produce enough coffee grounds to make farmers interested in reusing them (as in your example) so they need to pay... Read More

Sydney Water’s bright idea

Sydney Water's bright idea - tap water Sydney Water, the government owned business monopoly, has had a bright idea.   They’ve begun to provide empty, stylish glass bottles to cafes to serve tap water in.   The label on the bottle says, “Tap – a Sydney Water product”.   This is clever and will, I guess, re-position tap water in the minds of those eating out.  The bottle is solid and stylish.  The label is clear.  It will, I hope, make... Read More

Units swap room for ‘stuff’

Units swap room - swap shelf   Swap room with stuff for the taking A block of units I’m working with to ‘go sustainable’ has a ‘swap room’ where residents put their ‘stuff” for others to take if they want it.   Things not taken after a while are then sent to waste.   Next step is to work out how to stop stuff going to the mine near Goulburn where Sydney’s waste gets tipped down the shaft.   Good idea.   There’s... Read More