• New coolseat outside Sydney’s Sustainable House
By
Sophia Elmblad
Last week, Michael Mobbs and intern Sophia Elmblad installed the latest and greatest version of the coolseat.
This coolseat replaced an older version that had since broken outside the Sustainable House in Chippendale.
Before beginning the installation process, we had to clear the site.
Images of the site before and after being cleared, with the WaterUps placed and ready for delivery of the garden bed from Kingspan Water.
The installation process took between 2-3 hours and only required some imported soil combined with compost from the footpath garden composts to fill the bed. All other necessary components are included in the purchase of a coolseat!
Once the Kingspan Water tank was delivered, leveled, and the WaterUp wicking bed was positioned, we placed the seat, created by Maiden, and waste bins of recycled plastic inside the tank and on top of the wicking cells.
Here’s the fully assembled coolseat. You can visit it at 58 Myrtle Street in Chippendale, Sydney, Australia
All the components of Coolseats are made and sourced entirely in Australia. You don’t have to worry about the pollution involved from shipping overseas or the use of slave labor.
Coolseats works with some amazing partners such as:
• Maiden, https://www.maiden.company/, does the woodwork of the seat and has experimented with the attachment of the food waste bins as well as the easiest way to lift the bench.
A view of Maiden’s woodworking and toolshop
• WaterUps, https://www.waterups.com.au/, go at the bottom of the coolseat and serve as the water saving wicking cell that support healthy plant growth. The wicking cells reduce water use by 80%, as the water is supplied to the plant roots where they are below the soil there is no evaporation or waste of the water.
An image of the wicking cell used in Coolseat. There are many more options to check out on the WaterUps website.
• Kingspan Water Tanks, https://kingspanwatertanks.com.au/, which are the garden bed/tank for coolseats.
A view of Kingspan Water Tanks in action. There are many size and shape options on the Kingspan Website!
A vital part of the coolseat which enables the seat to hold itself up - hands free - and anyone to put compost into the baskets below, and to turn the compost with a compost auger, or to add food waste is a gas strut made by: Gas Strut Australia - www.gasstrutaustralia.com.au It’s another Australian company based in Mudgee, NSW, and they make the gas struts - thank you all there.
Coolseats is very proud of the work these companies put in to supporting us as well as providing the seats with the highest quality components - thank you!
Also giving invaluable design and wonderful drawings is Reni Deverich, designer - thank you, Reni; such a pleasure to work with you.
Heartfelt thanks, too, to the NSW EPA for funding the trial of coolseats to test ending cafe food waste in Chippendale and Bathurst; terrific partnership.
Finally, none of our 1,000 plus plants, trees , composting options, and herbs in our Chippendale footpath gardens would be possible without the far-sighted, empowering and truly sustainable (for community-generation, reduced food miles, reduced food waste, and more) policy of the supportive Sydney City Council - thank you councillors and staff there, too. Food waste reduction, a cooler street and suburb, healthier tree and plant growth, community collaboration, conversations on the streets and parks - these and so much more flow from this policy.
Refer to the instagrams @michaelmobbs and @coolseats for a video showing the newest coolseat and how to use it to reduce food waste!