Looks can be deceiving – and a coolseat certainly is. What seems like a stylish wooden bench amongst a garden of flowers or herbs by daylight could be revealed to be a plant feeding compost maker by moonlight.
Once the lids lift up, the seat reveals baskets into which food waste can be tossed. Due to the six sided ventilated system, food waste could become compost in as little as three weeks. Along with food waste, the worms residing in the coolseat will also accept green and paper waste, coffee grounds, and other table wastes.
The idea started when founder, the well known sustainability guru Michael Mobbs disconnected his house in Chippendale in Sydney’s inner west from town water, the sewerage system as well as the electricity grid, starting the process during renovations in 1996.
But saving 3 million litres of sewage leaving the house and 3 million litres of water wasn’t enough, Michael says.
Instead, he focused on the local solutions he and his neighbours could use to stop damaging Earth. They needed to be easy, simple and affordable. That’s how the coolseat concept came about. The seat can be placed inside a property or outside. It’s easy to assemble, saves soil and fertiliser costs, has no smells and is rat-proof, Michael says. “When graphed as a country, food waste pollution makes it Earth’s third most polluting country after China (first place) and the US (second place). coolseat empowers anyone to end the third biggest source of climate pollution – food waste.”
Listen to Michael Mobbs on the Transitions Podcast here.
