Last night’s Chinese food is sitting in the fridge, waiting to meet its fate in the trash. Little do people know is that there is a less wasteful option: composting . The little critters that are in the compost are enjoying a free meal, in particular, the worms. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden decided to give the worms a dinner special of leftovers at an indoor composting class, which is one of the many programs offered to the public in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Eight participants gathered to this class to educate themselves about worms- yes, worms. They all have their own reasons for being there, but the common concern of waste in their daily lives brought them all here on a Wednesday night after a hard day’s work.

Participants sat in groups of four, waiting patiently to get their hands dirty for the worms. Most of the participants are teachers who expressed interest in having a compost bin in their classrooms. They wanted to teach their students the importance of using their food leftovers in a useful way, but also creating fun by having a strange class pet.

Though most of the class are teachers, there are some who aren’t. Melissa Brzuszek is a gardener who wants to put a compost bin in her home.

She and her wife wanted to change the way they used their leftovers by utilizing their garden in their backyard. By using a compost bin, they can throw out their food scraps in their garden that can be used to grow their greenery.  Though this is the main reason, this isn’t the only reason for Brzuszek. “If I can learn it here, I can educate my customers.”

Throughout the class, the instructor and project coordinator of the NYC Compost Project, Claudia Neves educated the participants on how to use Eisenia fetida or Red Wiggler worm as their decomposer for their compost bins.

“Redwood worms are the most common and easiest to buy on the internet,” Neves taught the class. Getting their hands dirty, participants dug through the compost in an attempt to find these elusive worms. When found, the worms wiggled away in attempt to flee, but they met their match with a group of excited environmentally-conscious citizens. No one seems to be scared to pick them up as they all eagerly placed them on their palms. In the palm, these worms need to be treated with a delicate touch as they are very squishy. Even when the activity is over, people still dug to find more.

Neves led the class to the greenhouse to show them how to set up their compost bins. They shredded newspapers, spritzed liquid, cut food scraps, then finally put the worms into the bin, people are amazed that no soil, not even a little bit, is needed to get the compost going. The worms take all the credit to create the soil-like material as they ate their delicious meal.

“Don’t use meat or bread as your food scraps. You don’t want to attract pests,” instructed Neves.  Vegetables, fruits, and surprisingly coffee grinds can be used as food scraps for the worms to eat.

Neves knows what she is talking about since she has been composting since 2008. “I used to live in Seattle, so the city collects food scraps from the curbs,” she stated. Over there, composting is the norm, so the switch for her was easy.  “Composting is useful, so I feel motivated. There is just so much waste sitting in landfills when they can be used for something useful.”

“Worms don’t have eyes, so they are blind,” Neves instructed. Humans try to turn a blind eye to what is going on around them; they give their excuses that come off as being lazy. But, in this Wednesday night class, participants chose to not be blind to their environment, but proactively make their lives better.  They learned the steps to become more waste-free as they go back to their daily lives in the next morning. Not only have they created a more green New York City, it doesn’t hurt that the worms got their dinner-being blind while trying to eat is tough work.