January 12, 2011 As you might imagine with any large urban metro area with over 6 million residents, there exists an ongoing challenge of what to do with all the waste. The St. Petersburg Urban Garden Club (in Russia) set out to create something that was more ecological and also gave something of great value to its neighbors: freshly grown food. It began in 1993 with a rooftop garden – on the rooftop of the apartment building of Alla Sokol’s home – and in 1999 they began worm composting. Each week kitchen scraps from the building’s participants are collected, pulverized, and turned into compost – which is used in growing vegetables on the rooftop garden.
“This cooperative has reduced waste collection expenses by 30,000 rubles per year. That means every month we recycle 500 kilos [1,100 pounds] of household rubbish right here, without taking it anywhere. If every building and family in the city did the same, imagine how much cleaner the big cities like ours would be.” -Alla Sokol, Urban Garden Club
In addition to learning more about what this group accomplished (scroll down) and other urban gardening that is evolving in St. Petersburg, you’ll also get an idea of how to make your own worm bin.