Worms in the Big Apple

The Story Of Urban Composting — From Garbage To Garden

A film by Jenn Guitart. 2006. 18 min.

All over New York City, tiny creatures are transforming residents’ garbage into soil. This playful educational film reveals the fascinating, fun, and sometimes stinky culture of urban composting, portraying devoted gardeners and environmental activists who go to great lengths to transform their garbage into gardens. The film also follows a classroom of first graders as they learn about the cyclical processes of composting and growth. Charming and funny moments in the classroom are interspersed with elucidating interviews, and strikingly lovely sequences of expert composters tending to their bins — in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, along the gritty East River, and in idyllic backyards and community gardens. In these settings, we discover the power of a natural process — that of decay and growth — to transform how New Yorkers experience their city.

This film was featured on the syndicated public television show Natural Heroes, and at a dozen environmental film festivals around the world.

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