• Mayor Andy Chiu of Taiwan city, Hsinchu, and 13 person delegation visiting Chippendale footpath gardens and coolseats compost solutions
Chippendale goes global fostering innovation
by
Isabel Koenig Woodroffe
The mayor of Hsinchu City in Taiwan, Andy Chiu, and a 15 person delegation of politicians and staff from Hsinchu City Council, Taiwan visited Chippendale on Friday 5 September 2025 to meet Michael Mobbs and learn about his innovative food waste/composting street furniture Coolseats.
Knowledge sharing was the order of the day as Michael and the mayor of Hsinchu city compared their food waste composting technologies.
The delegation, here on a tour of urban sustainability practices in Sydney and Melbourne, made seeing Michael Mobbs’ Coolseats a priority stop on their visit. They had many questions and were most excited to learn that the Cool Seats in Chippendale don’t smell, are impervious to rats, don’t need water, cool the streets, are attractive to passersby as seats, encourage community gathering, and are successfully managed by the community.
An English and Chinese language summary of the coolseats composting projects was prepared for the delegation by a Chinese speaking intern working with Michael, Chris Chen. Chris has also written a blog in English and Chinese about the visit here.
The beauty of the visit for everyone was to not just to learn the technical functionality of the Coolseata but to see first hand the implicit value of a Coolseat as part of an intricate ecological system right there on Myrtle st. Chippendale.
• Getting up close to a coolseat and the compost under the seat - the mayor and the head of the department of health
Even better, the visceral experience of seeing the fresh compost teeming with worms, touching and smelling different plants, and seeing the abundance of healthy trees softening and shading the street truly demonstrated the impact of community and their composting efforts. Everyone who visited was enthusiastic, interested and thoroughly charmed by the whole display.
• Food becoming soil - no smell, lots of worms and little critters
Mr Chiu showed his gratitude for the visit by gifting Michael beautiful glass ornaments (Hsinchu is renowned for its glass industry) and by inviting Michael to visit Taiwan to learn more about the city’s own sustainability practices. Michael can’t wait to take up the offer to share and learn more.