South Sydney

This article was originally posted to Transponder on October 22, 2025. https://transponder.substack.com/

Last Saturday, Bayside Council hosted Project Planet 2025, an event to encourage sustainable and efficient living.

The event had food stalls, free workshops, community stalls, live music, a quiet space and film screenings.

This event aimed to initiate conversation and education surrounding sustainable and innovative living.

The workshops involved composting, recycling, worm farming, vertical gardening, energy efficiency and more. Two workshops were run by the Bower and Your Energy Friend.

“The Bower is a non-for-profit environmental charity, we are all about sustainability, circular economies and keeping furniture out of landfill”, said Mak Moktari from The Bower. Circular economies allow people to reuse and recycle items to reduce landfill.

The Bower’s workshops are about “educating and empowering people to be knowledgeable and think twice what they’re wasting”, said Moktari.

“We work with a lot of abandoned furniture. You’ll see people dumping stuff on the side of roads or in some cases we work with the councils. If you’ve got a council pickup, we say, hey rather than them getting crushed, if it’s half decent we’ll take it”.

Greater Sydney landfills are predicted to reach capacity by 2030 without intervention. Circular economies are vital to minimising landfill, according to NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA).

Adam Corrigan, the Founder of Your Energy Friend, provided advice and explained how homeowners can make their homes more energy efficient while reducing approximately “$33,000 to $50,000 of their mortgage”.

“The money has come from the Federal Government down through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which is kind of the federal government’s green bank. They are now working with the [major] banks to say, ‘we will give you money to incentivise your customers to reduce their emissions’”, said Corrigan.

Each of the major banks in Australia have their own eligibility criteria.

Corrigan stated that 15% of electricity spending goes to standby power. He recommends master/slave power boards that turn off all power points once the main point is turned off.

Global warming is a worldwide crisis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) state in a 2022 report that “changes to our lifestyles and behaviour can result in a 40-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050”.

Non-for-profits like The Bower encourage people to reuse and recycle old furniture to reduce emissions that are emitted from landfill.

Landfill gas is primarily made up of methane and carbon dioxide, which is a large contributor to climate change.

The Australia Institute found that Australians are the world’s largest fashion consumer. The report also found that Australians are, on average, buying 56 items priced at AUD$13 each per year.

It is pertinent that Australians make lifestyle changes to reduce their impact on landfill and climate change.

Environmentally driven events like Project Planet are important in starting conversations and educating people how to be more responsible and efficient in their lives.

Author note: The article posted to my website contains hyperlinks throughout the article. Cheers.