By Karen Booth
Linda (L), Karen (R) on the new coolseat outside Curlys Cafe, Curl Curl
Done! Yes! We've ended Curly's Cafe food waste - Pt 2
Yeah, 20th September 2022, the day we have been waiting for, the Coolseat is installed beside the footpath outside Curlys Cafe, at Curl Curl, Sydney, NSW.
(In my first post I gave a brief history of how we began to work with Curlys Cafe to end food waste there.)
After seven months of persistence and teamwork, Curl Curl’s journey towards zero waste has taken another almighty step. This seat will make composting easier for Curlys Café and spread the word across the Curly community, that composting at home or as a local business is easy to do, financially and environmentally rewarding, as well as a source of natural beauty.
And the results can be enjoyed by all. The new seat will create a natural sanctuary on the corner, and a habitat for native fauna and flora, to be enjoyed by the whole community. Two adults can sit on it and anyone passing by may take a break there under the tree.
• Paul, the owner of Curlys Cafe, John Fry from Bathurst and, with Michael, the designer and builder of coolseats, and Briohny, the co-owner - putting in the first lot of food waste while the seat lid is fixed open
The cafe staff may bring out food prep and plate waste, lift the lid and prop it on the support then tip in the food waste where it becomes compost and soil in four weeks.
• Jagger, John and Michael at the coolseat outside Curlys Cafe
Michael, John and Jagger from Sustainable House, arrived bright and early Tuesday 20th September 2022 to install the long awaited coolseat composting system for Curlys Café. (John drove over the mountains from Bathurst to bring the coolseat to the site - thanks, John.)
The coolseat was positioned and the system levelled off at remarkable speed. Then the team began the process of filling up the surrounding garden bed. The bed was filled with soil from the nature strip, (*see below) compost, worms and soil microbes from Curly’s back garden providing the perfect mix of enriched soil and essential “compost starter” (acting like yeast for brewing), allowing the next wave of waste transformation to black gold to begin!
In no time at all we were planting up, filling the garden bed with Native and edible plants. (All up it took two and a half hours.)
• John, Karen, Michael and Jagger - digging the trench for the Waterups wicking cells to irrigate the roots where they are below ground level and to revive the struggling fruit tree in the verge
In addition to the coolseat set up Michael also installed the same wicking beds used under the coolseat on the café verge next to some cherry trees planted by Curly’s neighbour, Morgan, and her family. The wicking beds will store and provide some much-needed water and oxygen to the tree roots, and we will be monitoring the trees health over the next few months for signs of improvement. The *soil dug out was transferred to the coolseats garden surround providing a perfect soil base.
During the install, the atmosphere at the café was electric, Paul and Briohny (the owners of Curlys Cafe) and their staff were intrigued by the installation and sustained the workers with their amazing coffee and freshly squeezed juices. It was heart-warming to see so much interest, positivity and support from the customers and community.
• Cafe customers and passers-by already enjoying the seat
Special thanks to TAFE NSW Horticultural college and Jeremy Smith, who kindly donated the native and edible plants for the garden bed.
A huge thank you to our local leaders Michael Regan (the Mayor of Northern Beaches), Steven Lawler (Executive Manager Parks & Recreation, Northern Beaches Council), Andrew Ward-Harvey and the Council team who have agreed to support this as a trial.
If all goes well, with community and business support, we would like to see this as a first step of a roll out of coolseats across the beaches. When we do this we save local businesses waste costs, reduce food waste to land fill, reduce air pollution from landfill, grow soil to grow tree and plant canopy which will cool streets and - if done at scale - can reduce air con costs for houses and buildings.
by Karen Booth