• Recycled sewage used every day for the last 30 years to flush the toilet, wash clothes and hose the garden
Anyone with a partly or fully sustainable house may open it for public tours on National Sustainable House Day.
On Sunday 17 May 2026 houses across Australia will open for public tours.
Two tours of my house, Sydney’s Sustainable House, will also be available at 10 am and 11 am on Sunday 17 May.
Before the May tours general public tours of my house are also available, too. To book a tour of my house before the May tours please go to this link: https://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/general-tours
It takes an hour to see the energy, water and recycled water systems.
Anyone can use energy and water and recycle sewage where they live simply by using products available from most hardware stores, or from recycled materials. It isn’t complicated.
Every day, my recycled sewage flushes the toilet and washes clothes, and its been used this way for the last 30 years.
Rented apartment units are difficult - unless the body corporate managing the units or the developer building them chooses to make the units sustainable. Units are typically difficult for retrofits, but imagination can solve difficult problems there.
• Solar panels on unit balconies plug into power points - no costly inverters, tenants can take them with them
For example, in Germany, there’s now a growing trend to install solar power on unit balconies using a very simple technology which does not require expensive inverters – renters or owners of units can simply plug their solar panels into a power point.
Another example of simple solutions are shown in this “straw” house made with recycled materials even though it’s in a remote location where materials and tradies are difficult to find, near Broken Hill in NSW: https://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/michaels-blog/2025/6/29/straw-house
• Coolseat outside my house
No matter where we live - a house, unit - or at an office or school the single easiest way to save money, cut pollution and feel good about how we live is to compost our food waste.
All food waste in my house is composted outside my house in a coolseat on the footpath garden.
Any Coolseat has:
1 . a seat to sit on that anyone can open up for food waste - my neighbours use the Coolseat for my house and people sit on it,
2. garden beds for growing veggies and flowers,
3. shading for the footpath,
4. free soil from compost.
When a coolseat is on a footpath, outside a cafe, at a school or park people sit on them and conversations happen with friends, strangers.
Cardboard and paper go in the coolseat, too, as part of the composting process. No smell, Rat-proof. It is delivered to your school, cafe, house or units in a flat pack, and takes an hour to assemble - anyone can assemble one. (No food waste bin, no truck pick up - see this warning about truck-based FOGO.)
ORDER YOUR COOLSEAT THROUGH THE MANUFACTURER'S WEBSITE - so you get the factory prices and freight costs when you order.
We love you, Earth.
by
Michael Mobbs