On Monday 23 June 2025, Councillors of the City of Sydney will meet to decide the final content of the next budget.
Friends of Chippendale has put together a detailed and comprehensive plan which aims to make their suburb sustainable. Part of the plan is to end food waste before 2030 and compost it in the suburb. They have asked Sydney City Council to fund this part of the plan in its budget ending June 2026. Anyone, no matter where they live or work, can support their submission by completing a short survey and adding their comments to send to the councillors (approximately 2 minutes of your time commitment).
View the Chippendale Community Action Plan
Feedback on our plan is positive such as this:
“I love the way they have put that whole proposal together – it’s great how it is very clear and concise and the illustrations really help people
visualize and imagine what’s possible. ”
Have your say on the spendings in Chippendale. Contact the City of Sydney before June 20th. Email now
The community of Chippendale has a decades-long tradition of supporting
sustainable projects in the local public and private domains including:
- Negotiating an agreement with the developer of Central Park in Chippendale to harvest and use rainwater, recycle and use treated sewage, install and operate a trigeneration system for energy and hot water;
- Collaborating with Council to create, support and promote Council’s
Footpath Gardening policy which sets an Australian example of best practice community engagement (https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/community-
activities-initiatives/footpath-gardening); - Demonstrating options in Shepherd, Myrtle, Buckland, Meagher and Pine
Streets to absorb and keep rainwater where it falls on footpaths and roads to irrigate footpath gardens, plants and trees; - Engages 30 to 50 local residents and businesses each week to garden in the Chippendale community footpath gardens –
https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/community-gardens/sustainable-
chippendale-footpath-gardens;
•Footpath composting options in Chippendale footpath gardens for food waste have for over ten years serviced cafes, bars, apartments and households such that the community now composts over 400 kg of food waste each week and harvests the compost to grow over 1,000 fruit trees, herbs and plants;
•Collaborated with the former South Sydney Council and a developer to plan, fund and build Peace Park which has edible plants and fruit trees. The inscription on the park sign reads; “This park was restored and refurbished in conjunction with local residents to improve the open space amenity of Chippendale and was funded by developer contributions.” - Sydney’s Sustainable House (https://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/), which is off-grid for water and energy, was created in 1996 and 29 years later has kept all sewage and stormwater on site and has been continuously featured in media (for example, in the Netflix documentary series, Zac Efron Down Under), school and university curricula, and is often toured by students and others;
- Three universities (Sydney, UTS, Notre Dame) are located in the suburb and students from them studying sustainable courses continuously take field trips in the streets to review the infrastructure there.
May the worms be in our streets, soil and compost!
Michael Mobbs www.sustainablehouse.com.au/
