Sustainability at Holden Street

Our recycling program is FINALLY back- bigger and better than ever. We are now able to receive many types of recyclables. Please click here for more info on what we can currently accept.

Second Bite redistributes surplus fresh food that is donated by farmers, wholesalers, markets, supermarkets and caterers. Holden Street receives a delivery every Wednesday, with community collection available from 10.30am on Wednesdays. Drop by for free nutritious food & remember to BYO bags.

In 2023, the nine neighbourhood houses in the City of Yarra worked together to consider how we could make our houses more sustainable and resilient to the impacts of climate change, and support the community to do the same. The outcome was this Yarra Neighbourhood House Network Climate Action and Resilience Plan. View the plan here.

The wonderful Holden Street Garden Club Volunteers help us to develop and maintain our beautiful garden beds around the House. People have been able to harvest a wide range of vegetables and herbs. An addition to our collection this year was an artichoke plant and replacement passionfruit. The mandarin tree fruited well and the orange tree produced its first fruit. We always welcome any new volunteers who would like to learn more about gardening, or could maybe show us a thing or two to assist in developing our gardens even further.

Holden Street has recently built a new Community Food Pantry at the front of our property. Non-perishable items will be stocked in the pantry for people to access at any time. We welcome our community to assist us to keep the pantry stocked all year around. Our motto is ‘Give a little. Take a little. As you need.’

Having spent years fundraising (mainly selling recycled paper, toilet rolls and an evening fundraising dinner) we had put aside almost enough to upgrade our existing panels. However, more good news was to come. The Energy Efficient Communities Program (EECP) opened and Holden Street was successful in their application for this future upgrade. We are now thrilled to have our solar panels installed and assisting us with our ongoing efforts to reduce our footprint on the earth

Our wonderful volunteers have worked tirelessly to help us establish and develop an incredible composting system. We currently have 3 separate composting stations around the House which are accessed by our classes and volunteers regularly. We are currently in the process of developing a more robust system which would allow us to open the gates to locals wanting to contribute to the compost. In order for us to do this successfully, we will need some extra volunteers, so if you’re interested please let us know!

Holden Street is very lucky to have two little libraries on site. An adult library is located at the front of the House, and our children’s library is located on our fence near the park playground. Our libraries are always accessible, so be sure to come and check them out

The installation of our rain Garden in 2012 has fulfilled its primary purpose: to stop stormwater run-off from polluting our waterways with nutrients, rubbish and sediment. Our Garden Club maintains this area and continues to ensure it’s effectiveness.