By

Hangtao (Chris) Chen,

Intern with Michael Mobbs at Sydney’s Sustainable House

Hi! I’m a Tamkang University graduate.

(Tamkang University is a private university in the Tamsui District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. It was founded in 1950 as a junior college of English. Today it is a comprehensive university with 11 colleges that serves nearly 25,000 students on four campuses.)

I’m writing this now as a student at the University of Sydney, interning with Michael Mobbs at Sustainable House.

Here, I provide two blogs; one in English, then below this, another blog saying the same thing but in Chinese (Traditional).

As Michael Mobbs’ assistant and interpreter, Michael and I hosted Acting Mayor Andy Chiu and the Hsinchu City Government team in Chippendale, a small suburb beside the central business district of Sydney. With on-street demos, photos and short explanations, we showed how our neighbourhood turns food scraps into compost and cooler, greener streets—and discussed how this could work in Taiwan.

Here is my step-by-step account of the visit.

We met near Michael’s Sustainable House beside Peace Park to set the scene and outline what we’d see.

***• Michael, myself and Acting Mayor Andy Chiu and the Taiwan delegation beside Peace Park***

I prepared a bilingual handout under Michael’s guidance so the visiting team could follow along easily.

***• Bi-lingual handout (Chinese, English) for the delegation***

After handing out the brief, we introduced City of Sydney’s footpath/kerb-gardening policy which allows citizens to garden in the footpaths without Council approval. Using this policy local gardeners and households have turned streets once bare of trees and plants into green, plant and tree dominated landscapes full of birds and biodiversity and cool shade in summer.

Composting on the street: Coolseats

We started with a unique design by Michael called, Coolseats. It combines a seat + garden bed planter + compost system, with wicking cells to self-water. Michael sat on it first to show how it is a seat, how stable it is, then he opened the lid so everyone could see the worms at work. The gas struts make it safe to use the lid for children and users. With my interpreting assistance and the delegation’s interpreter we explained what food waste to put in / keep out, and how smell and pests are managed because the design is very aerobic and the steel frames exclude rats.

***• L: Cafe Guilia workers carrying food waste to a coolseat outside the cafe***
***• R: Early model coolseats outside Cafe Guilia***

One-minute how-to compost

Put food waste from nearby homes/cafés into the baskets under the seat
Turn and mix the food waste with dry carbon (leaves/shredded paper, cardboard, toilet rolls, packaging)
Local cafes, households and apartments manage the compost in Chippendale

We will also provide a video in another blog: short clip showing scraps being composted.

As coolseats are flat packed and can be assembled by any unskilled person, and can be maintained by anyone, they avoid capital or maintenance costs for local councils.

The delegation asked about location, safety and cost. In Chippendale the compost options, including coolseats, are on the street footpaths outside houses, apartments, schools and cafés. For over ten years the community has been using the different composting options, including the prototype coolseat options. The different options work well so long as about four or so people in the community maintain them. Some options work better than others.

They also asked how to measure results: scraps diverted, compost produced, and simple street-temperature notes. The Chippendale community uses the simple measure of removing mature compost to make room for more food waste.

Data on quantity and quality of composting is, however, being obtained from a Melbourne City project. Michael won a design prize from Melbourne City Council to trial his coolseat composting design in Fishermans Bend. The trial is due to complete in December this year and data from it is expected to be published later this year. Find out more about this Worms at Work project in Melbourne, here.

There is also a national local composting organisation in Australia, LOccal, which enables local composters across the country to share ideas, data and project information.

The delegation also described Taiwan’s centralised composting plants.

We compared pros and cons: while a big centralized plant can be faster, a local composting option outside a building where food waste is created uses far less energy - ‘net zero’ pollution - than a centralized garbage collection and grows conversations in the street and. is more convenient — no daily “chasing the garbage truck”, and no fuel or electricity used.

The delegation also discussed the link between food waste and climate pollution and the different climates in Sydney and Taiwan.

Taiwan is more humid than Sydney—will local composting work in Taiwan, too?

Drawing on my time in Tamsui, I explained we can simply add more shredded newspaper/dry material to control humidity. That keeps the compost system stable and odour-free even in wet seasons.

In addition, I pointed out that Taiwan's greening still has a lot of room for improvement compared to Chippendale’s streets in Sydney, and the visiting group agreed with this view.

**• L: Typical street in a Taiwan city**
**• R: Streets in Chippendale and other suburbs with the footpath policy**

A short footpath walk

Michael and I led a walk along the footpath to show heat and drought-tolerant species, and how footpath garden beds + compost + mulch + wicking cells keep plants alive. People also noticed the social effect — green verges invite people to stop, sit and chat.

***• People resting and sitting in greenery***

Pairing compost with volunteering

When the delegate team asked about ongoing management, I drew on my volunteer experience in Taiwan: I suggested it is possible to pair the units with a simple volunteer roster so “donation → cooking → back to soil” happens within the same community.

*• In Chippendale footpath gardens* volunteers are composting and greening together

What Hsinchu’s leaders said

The delegation was happy with the visit.

Acting Mayor Andy Chiu expressed interest in long-term collaboration to advance food circularity and community sustainability, aiming to make Hsinchu—and Taiwan— an Asian demonstration city where technology and community action work together toward net-zero. He also invited Michael to create a pilot showcase in Hsinchu to demonstrate how the system runs and the benefits it brings. (Source: Hsinchu City Government)

***• Group photo with the delegation (credit: Hsinchu City Government)***

Thanks

Thanks to Acting Mayor Chiu and the team for the thoughtful questions and discussion.
Thanks to Taiwan for my education—it shaped my commitment to the environment.
Thanks to Michael Mobbs for the mentoring and for the chance to help host the visit.

· CoolSeats contract：[https://www.coolseats.com.au/contact]

· Visit Sustainable House：[https://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/]

· Hsinchu government news

在雪梨接待台灣代表團

作者：陳杭濤（Chris）— 2025年9月10日

雪梨 Sustainable House（永續之家）Michael Mobbs 的實習生

大家好！我是一名畢業于淡江大學的學生。

現在我在雪梨大學就讀，同時在 Sustainable House 跟隨 Michael Mobbs 實習。

作為 Michael Mobbs 的助理與口譯，我們接待了代理市長……展示了如何把廚餘變成堆肥、讓街道更綠更涼——並討論了這些做法在台灣如何落地。

以下是這次參訪的逐步紀錄。

歡迎來到 Sustainable House

我們在永續之家門外、Peace Park（和平公園）旁集合，說明參訪重點與動線。

在 Michael 的指導下，我準備了雙語講義，方便訪團隨時對照。

發完簡報後，我們先介紹了雪梨市的人行道／路緣綠化指引——居民與店家在滿足通行與維護要求的前提下可以進行綠化。好的規則讓小點子長成整條街的綠走廊，夏天也能提供鳥類與生物多樣性的棲息與陰涼。

利用Coolseats在街上堆肥

我們首先展示了 Michael 的獨特設計 Coolseats——「座椅＋花壇＋堆肥」三合一，底部的毛細蓄水（wicking）讓植物自動保水。我先坐上去示範其穩固性，再打開上蓋讓大家看蚯蚓的工作。我講解了可投／不可投的食材、氣味與害獸控制；鋼結構和蓋板可以防止鼠患。

[Coolseats 簡介]

一分鐘上手：如何堆肥

將附近家庭/咖啡館的廚餘放入座椅下方的垃圾籃

• 將廚餘翻動並與乾碳（樹葉/碎紙、紙板、衛生紙、包裝材料）混合

• 當地咖啡廳、家庭和公寓負責堆肥

這裡也提供一段堆肥厨餘的影片供大家參考

由於涼爽座椅是平板包裝的，任何非熟練人員都可以組裝，任何人都可以維護，因此可以避免地方政府的任何資本或維護成本。

代表團詢問了地點、安全性和成本的問題。在Chippendale，堆肥設施（包括Coolseats）分佈在房屋、公寓、學校和咖啡館外的人行道上。也詢問了如何衡量成效：廢物的轉化、堆肥的產量以及簡單的街道溫度記錄。

代表團也介紹了台灣的集中式堆肥廠。

我們比較了利弊：雖然大型集中式工廠的速度可能更快，但在產生食物垃圾的建築物外進行本地堆肥比集中式垃圾收集消耗的能源要少得多。并且可以促進社區居民的交流。而且更方便——再也不用每天趕垃圾車！

代表團也討論了厨餘與氣候污染之間的關聯以及雪梨和台灣的氣候差異。

台灣比雪梨更潮濕——這種做法可行嗎？

我根據在淡水的經驗解釋說，我們可以簡單地添加一些碎報紙/乾料來控制濕度。這樣即使在潮濕的季節，堆肥系統也能保持穩定，並且無異味。

另外，我提出台灣的綠化比起雪梨來説還有很大的進步空間，參訪團也很認可這個觀點。

在路邊走走

我和 Michael 沿著路緣帶帶領走讀，介紹耐熱耐旱的植物，以及淺盆＋覆蓋（mulch）＋毛細灌溉（wicking）如何讓植物存活。大家也注意到社會效應——綠化的路緣會讓人停下、坐下、聊起來。

将堆肥与志工服务结合起来

當團隊詢問後續管理時，我結合自己在台灣的志工經驗，建議以簡單的志工輪值表來搭配這些設備，讓「捐贈 → 烹飪 → 回到土壤（堆肥）」的循環能在同一個社區內完成。

最後的最後，

感謝邱代理市長與團隊的深入提問。若想共同設計示範場域，歡迎聯絡；
感謝台灣對我的教育，將我教育成一個熱愛環境的人。
感謝Michael一直以來對我的教導，以及給我這次機會參與接待代表團。

出處 — 未特別標示者，照片/影片由Chris或Michael 拍攝；若使用政府網站素材，圖說會標註來源與授權。

· CoolSeats 洽詢：[https://www.coolseats.com.au/contact]

· 參觀 Sustainable House：[https://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/]

Hosting Taiwan’s Delegation in Sydney