Urban Composting: A New Can of Worms

SHOW AND TELL At a composting workshop run by the Lower East Side Ecology Center, a crowd of about 70 people recently learned how to set up their own worm condos at home. Vera Topcik, 5, got up close with some wiggly friends.

ON a recent Saturday afternoon, Stephanie Stern and her husband poured 1,000 wriggling red worms from a brown bag into a plastic bin outside their bathroom, looked down and hoped for the best.

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

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