Ending cafe food waste - Pt 2
• Linda (L), Karen (R) on the newly installed coolseat at Curlys Cafe, Curl Curl, Sydney
by
Karen Booth
Yeah, 20th September 2022, the day we have been waiting for, the Coolseat is being installed.
A Cool Day for Curl Curl.
(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. Passersby and cafe patrons may sit on the seat, which has room for two adults.
Paul (L - cafe co-owner), John from coolseats, Brionhy (R - cafe co-owner)
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.
• L to R: Jagger (intern with Sustainable House), John, Michael - at the coolseat outside Curlys Cafe
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 later) 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.
• John, Karen, Michael, Jagger digging ditch for Waterups below ground irrigation to grow fruit tree in the verge - Waterups provide wicking beds for the coolseats plants and reduce watering by up to 80% because the water is where the roots are and there is no loss from surface irrigation
In addition to the coolseat set up Michael and John and Jagger also installed wicking beds on the café verge next to some cherry trees planted by Curly’s neighbour, Morgan, and her family.
The Waterups wicking beds will store and provide 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.
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 Major 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. we must also thank WaterUps - whose wicking beds use water so efficiently.
by
Karen Booth