The Community Rescuing Food Waste From Landfill to Make Beautiful Compost | Ben & bEartha
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- 'Ben & bEartha: A Community's Compost Love Story' is a free 40-minute sustainability documentary following the highs and lows of a passionate community as they attempt to tackle the issue of food waste going to landfill. Their solution? A composting machine called bEartha and a small-scale, sustainable approach that produces beautiful soil.
In this documentary we get to know Ben and Bertha - a compost nerd and the machine he’s designed to revolutionise regional composting. If compost isn’t your thing yet, here’s a story that might surprise you into a passion for kitchen scraps and microbes. And if composting’s already one of your great loves - because compost practitioners do seem to really LOVE compost - then we reckon this community-focused story is going to stir up your compost passion!
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Facebook: / compostnelson
More about Happen Films
We make short and feature-length documentaries, all about permaculture, resilience and sustainability.
Website: happenfilms.com
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Facebook: / happenfilms
Subtitles
Please get in touch if you'd like to create subtitles in your language! happenfilms.co...
Thank you!
We are forever grateful to everyone who supports us financially to make our films - we can’t do this without the regular donations we receive that range from $1 a month and make all the difference.
These awesome folk support us on Patreon: John Braman, Andi Begerl, Chris and Kristen, Matthew Burdett, Kelle McNamara, Jacqueline Hicks, Dennis Lange, Teresa R., Dave Evans, Julian Maher, Mary Conlan, Greg and Rachel Hart, Brian Newton, Lauren, Kirti Patel, Carolyn Gillum, V.J. Raghavan, Geoffrey Torkington, Tiitus Laine, Rex and Jo, Sankar Madhavan, Pierre Blom, Kelly & Peter Osmond.
And a huge thank you to the incredible folk at Biome Trust for their generous long-term support for Happen Films.
Hi I clean a supermarket everyday and the amount of food that I bring home is crazy my dogs and chickens get fead and my compost are great I have been doing this for about 8 years thanks for sharing
Great that you're able to save some of that food and put it to good use! Thanks for watching the film :)
Your story reminds me, though it's a bit different, of a job I had when I was in college a long time ago.
I worked in a bank training college restaurant with a very generous budget.
(restaurant in the bank's college so only bank staff used it)
I worked as a waiter, among other jobs.
There were several rules regarding food safety and hygiene, as you'd expect.
One rule was: once you taken cheese from the fridge to the restaurant, you may not put it back in the fridge.
The waiters/waitresses took a total of what must have been five-ten kilograms of cheese into the restaurant on banquet nights.
I took home as much as I wanted, with my bosses' permission.
Being a college kid, I lived with my parents, who were quite disappointed when I moved on from that job.
I took crackers, grapes, salad and other things to enjoy with the cheese.
Over the few years I was there, I must have taken home several hundred pounds' worth of cheese.
I hate wasting food.
We need more people connected to the beautiful closed loop of compost. I also can't believe how fun composting can be. Something about turning waste into gold - once it sinks deep in you, you never are the same again.
I love your analogy " turning waste into gold ". I've been composting on a small scale and each time I turn it & use the humus in my garden I feel closer to mother earth.
I was happily surprised by the consistent use of 'her' and 'she' when talking about Beartha. Some would call it animism; the belief that places, things, groups, etc can have souls or spirits. Others might say that's bonkers. Either might be true.
But what is CERTAINLY true is that if you name your toaster Gerard, you are much more likely to repair him when he breaks. Instead of just chucking Gerard in the trash and buying his replacement. It is very important for us humans to start building relationships with the things around us in a way that makes us take care of them.
Love your comment! So true. And lucky Gerard having the promise of a long life :)
As a solitary home composter, I was impressed by the heat generated by your original system. You should all be really proud of what you've achieved and the example you've set. Inspirational!
So inspirational! Are you aware of Karl Hammer's work at Vermont Compost in USA? He composts food waste similarly using 700+ chickens. The 'machinery' are live animals that produce organic eggs to sell and eventually meat.
I’m certain he is aware of Karl’s methodology. I can see that solving the problem of waste is going to involve a lot of different methods - but what bEARTHa solves is amazing! Allowing a large amount of compost to be generated in a short amount of time and critically on a small footprint which can be done in an urban environment and keeps the odors down. One thing that is not well shown is the amount of “balancing” the nitrogen to carbon going in - I’d be interested to see what variability bEARTHa allows in that area - Karl can get away with “just give it more time” strategy whereas this approach really facilitates a community group coming together for a time once a week. Love everything about it!
nice!
As a local, growing, composting non-profit in the US, I couldn't agree more that it is disappointing that government is so far behind and are even hinderances to something that citizens are crying out for. We are trying our best to get past local ordinances to compost, find funding and land as well. It can be very disheartening.
So thankful that your video popped up and who knows?......I will probably be in touch soon. We are currently using CMC composting with a tractor as we do NOT want to be doing forced-air industrial style. Love that you guys are staying true to composting purity.
Yes, we are in Phoenix, AZ and there are a couple of composting facilities that provide high quality compost. They are using tractors, but this is an interesting concept that if implemented well could solve a lot of the access issues in my area. Currently I have to drive about 30 minutes to get to the nearest facility in a neighboring suburb.
Hey everyone! If you enjoyed this film please share the link! By sharing with your network you’re helping this film reach as many people as possible. Let’s inspire many more composting initiatives to pop up around the world!
If you'd like to support us in making more films please consider joining us on Patreon at patreon.com/happenfilms, we release regular exclusive content and behind-the-scenes updates!
And if you’d like to hold a screening of this film in your community, check out happenfilms.com/product/ben-and-beartha-community-screening-license for more info!
-Subtitles please? I am sure there would be great interest here in Brazil.
15:17 - now I see why it's called a Love Story. I would love to see this in my own town. Very inspiring. Thank you Ben and team for modeling this for others and to Happen Films for sharing this story.
😊 sounds like you've found a volunteering job!
Three things. Your compost looks great. You need to definitely address two other issues, if you have not already. You need to develop a lockout tagout program for when repairs are made to the tumbler. Second, you need to get a four gas analyzer and a blower for when an employee goes inside the tumbler. I know others will comment and say I’m wrong, that’s fine, I get it. But I have over 26 years in the industry. I’ve worked with numerous government agencies and insurance companies who investigate workplace safety and injuries. If something happens, I guarantee they will assign blame to a lack of safety and employee training.
Wow! I am positive he will achieve more in the future! He's doing a lot for the world than those in the government. yeah, it's really frustrating that some government officials are not quick to help in this valuable endeavor. But soon, they'll help you when you're succeeding which is - not good. But, continue doing this composting and I hope many countries follow in your footsteps!
Many kudos Ben! I had no idea there was a bEartha 2.0. I didn't even know there was a fundraiser! I was very happy to help in my small way (way back when) and I would've gladly helped again if I had known. And still willing to help!
You are truly an inspiration and I am always singing your praises and trying to get the world to compost as much as possible.
Congratulations on this wonderful milestone. One of many to come!
What a wonderful project. It’s not just enriching the earth but enriching the human experience of community connection and inclusion.
Inspiring community project, thank you bEartha and Happen Film. May we see more communities doing this and central and local government funding it. Well done all. 🐝
Thank you, yes we'd love to see much more of this happening around the world!
Ben, you are definitely a hero. Jordan and Antoinette thank you for bringing us another amazing doco.
He is absolutely adorable and so dedicated. We compost all of our food and garden stuff. We have several beds in our big garden where we grow our veggies and fruit. Its so satisfying to produce a lot of our own soil
wow! reminds me a lot about the Preciousplastic movement. Imagine if every community center had some of their machines turning plastic waste into useful material and a Beartha turning food scraps into nutritious compost! ❤
It was a pleasure to colour grade this documentary - great work team! Inspirational story 🔥🔥
Thanks for bringing your colour magic to make the film look the best it could!
Lovely work Luke, looks great!
Compost heroes indeed! Beautiful! Thank you for creating, documenting, and sharing such an important and inspiring journey! There needs to be a bEartha in every town and community.
I love Ben’s passion and enthusiasm. 😊
I am really surprised though that apparently New Zealand hasn’t got public services for differentiated waste retrieval and processing? But that’s coming from a Dutchie who is used to this.
Thanks for creating and sharing!
Same here in Germany. Also: how complicated with all the tiny bucket being transported around and ave an overly complicated machine that you ave to fill and unload... Load the food waste in a big(ger) container an a trailer, unload the waste in a windrow on the ground. Use a standard windrow turner to turn the whole row in a few minutes, rinse repeat. Even use the turner in different locations, while the compost sits for a few days in location one...
If it ain't Dutch it ain't much
NZ: clean, green, but not really. Thankfully some don't have their head in the sand though.
@@kevinbleakley5069 Trust me when I say, I would rather live in NZ than Europe. Been there done that.......NZ has a small population, so things will sort themselves out. There is a lot happening behind the scenes. And it's all starting in small communities like Nelson.
Wow, this is exciting! I dreamed of organising a small composting business where I am located in EU, but you've done it so soundly out there!! It's awesome seeing the process. If I can, I'll be part of this success one day 🎆 so cool! 😊
Wow, what a wonderful story of perseverance and grit. Well done on achieving such a significant goal in reducing food waste going to landfill. Inspiring!
Glad you enjoyed it!
A truly inspiring story, I’m in tears! I dream of a community like this in Australia which I could participate in. Well done Community Compost NZ team 💜
Why do everyone cry son easily.
@@cernugaming I guess the better question is, why do you find it so difficult to cry?
Very inspiring! And so important that you didn't downplay the tremendous obstacles you had to overcome.
Very, very good... this is the righ direction...
Fantastic!!! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you!
Thank you Happen Films for making such an inspirational story once again. Ben and his team deserve so much gratitude and thanks for doing what every town should be doing! You’re hard work is definitely appreciated and hopefully will be taken note of by local councils and shires, (I’m in Western Australia).
Glad you enjoyed the film, thanks so much 🙂
Beautiful, inspiring story thank you. Can't wait to see momemtum keep building in our community for a similar vision, all the seeds are there already and this kind of storytelling gives us motivation to keep going and to push the envelope.
Thanks for the lovely feedback :) Wishing your community all the best for making your vision a reality!
YAY! You got funding!!
I used to live in Nelson years ago. Now I'm in Kaikoura, off-grid in the mountains, making my own compost ❤❤❤
Beautiful film well done guys - very inspiring. The world really needs to watch this. 💚
Thanks guys! 🙂
What a simple & community connecting way to help repair climate change, also nourishing mother earth . I would love to be part of a group like this where I live. Great job 👏
I love this business model! Free money and free labor to create a company that will eventually pay the owner well, all while helping the environment.
What a extraordinary project
Thanks
Aw thanks so much for your generosity!
Looking forward to seeing the giant in action. Well done Ladies and Gents, compost worms and microbes, they do a great job also.😊
This inspirational docu brought me to tears of joy! What a wonderful master piece of grass roots empowerment that shows what is possible if we look at what we can do rather than what we cannot do. I hope your town admistration understands the potentials and funds more berthas ! Greetings from Germany and thanks so much for this Hitchcook like thriller!❤
That's so nice to hear, thank you for watching! :)
Love this! Im always aware of what we as individuals can do and not leaving it to businesses or governments. To that end i have a,worm farm three lsrge compost bins and chooks to take care of any food waste.
Nice! Yes individual and community action is so important, which is why most of our films focus on that. It's also crucial for governments and businesses to change as well, but I think that will only happen when there's demand from individuals and a culture that allows for it. Personally I find this really inspiring because it puts a lot of power back in our hands :)
- Jordan
Yeah! I love it! Thank you all soo much!
Autonomy at work. We don't need no government opressing us.
Well hust do it ourselves:)!
Fantastic initiative, great movie!
Nice to hear you enjoyed the film, thanks for checking it out!
Love what you are doing. Finally in Auckland we have food waste bins that are collected on a weekly basis for making a fertiliser. But, the uptake on this initiative is probably around 50% or less so I think we need more education on the importance of keeping food waste out of the landfill.
May God bless you and thank you for the management of our planet earth, you have greatly encouraged me to start small from my our community and reduce CO2 in atmosphere
Very nice.If I may suggest.There is a bucket washing machine, that is used by flower growers in Holland,that could make your bucket washing alot quicker and easier.
I have a small kitchen garden at home & I grow my own veges & fruits using our natural local resources from kitchen scraps & chicken manure & other organic materials from our big trees n grass I been composting our food scraps for many years & i also collecting some food scraps from a friends using whats available in our area.
I wish we had those ton of veggies & fruit scraps here where I lived .
So I can make heaps of homemade compost everyday.
Thanks for sharing your journey with us keep up the great work 🤝
Thanks!
OMG.... how did this end up in my feed?? Ben you amazing man! I left NZ for a few years, just got back this year.... awwww this has grown so well, yayyy!!! Your trusted delivery van was the first car I had to drive with a manual transmission (silly me for assuming it was an automatic when you asked me to cover a shift as you were on a wedding in Australia...and soon bunny hopping across Nelson hills on a Sunday morning with a van full of buckets LOLLL) Because of you I did not only get excited about sticking my hands into hot compost piles ....but I also taught many of my friends in different parts of the world how to properly layer and turn foodwaste into black beautiful soil within a month! I am forever grateful our paths crossed, and soooo lucky your initial drawings and vision reaches so many people now!!! Big hugs from CHC! You deserve it!!!
Very inspiring. Well done yo this community...may others follow 😍
Amazing work
Hope this concept catch up all over the world.👏🏻👏🏻
You give me hope. You are resilient people. I think it probably helped everybody’s mental health the fact that you solution seekers out there getting stuff done.
I am wondering if you checked what’s the biology in the compost in term of bacteria,fungi,protozoan or nematodes.
Please share your findings and what sort of material were used in what percentage.
So incredibly inspiring. We need something like this where I am in New Mexico, US…& everywhere.
Glad to hear you found it inspiring!
Wonderful project. Well done!
I'm surprised you don't have a collection system organized by the government. In Europe our organic waste gets picked up twice a week and taken to huge processing plants.
We´re just more people in close proximity in Europe. NZ might look small on a map but for a population of about 5 million it really isn´t. We´re almost 3,6 million Berliners on a very limited space. That´s easily done by a public service. The almost 268.000 km² of mountainous NZ are an obstacle.
May I asked you, where do you live?
@@Gabi-lt4mxI live in Spain
@@carlvanmeerbeek7327 Thank you. In Germany they collect the organic waste only twice a month.
@@Gabi-lt4mxThat's not very often 😊
Well done. World wide Beartha is needed.
You need to be Passionate about something in your life. A common passionate goal brings people together. Great work.
Excellent! I'm a worm farmer. Most casting harvesters vibrate in one form or another. I wonder if vibration might help you with extraction? Good on all of you!
Extraordinarily wonderful. Thank you for doing what you’re doing and may you all have all that you need to continue. Not always easy but essential work🕊
Bennnnnnn! Hi lovely. This video opened without my intention then when I closed it, I thought I recognised your face on the thumbnail so I opened it back up again to watch and there you are! Well done on this project mate!
It’s a long time since our arts factory days. You’re looking good. So proud of what you’re doing here ❤❤❤
Siete Grandi. Complimenti dall'Italia !!
Such genuine and positive people. Inspiring to see. It really bothers and scares me how projects like this are more of a private and independent project/business model, rather than a publicly funded or moreso “governmentally” funded. Well….. the governmental part is more farfetched than it should be. It should be a “high priority” subject/project than it is. Also, for the sake of “good”, investors should be encouraged to invest and help with such a positively beneficial project/business. But even that has me thinking it’s much more farfetched than it seems. Especially in this present day. Sadly….
Much love and Aloha to you and all who is pouring their hearts and souls into such an AMAZING and IMPORTANT project. 🙏🏼🤙🏼❤️✊🏼✊🏼✊🏼
Wow, this is such an amazing video and such an amazing project that gives me so much hope! Thank you for also showing the difficult parts of the journey. As someone who also has waste fighting NGO, it is such an inspiration to see how you kept pushing despite all the challenges. Congratulations on everything you have achieved and for all the food waste you have saved - and thank you to Happen Films for this amazing video - watching this was such a great way to start the morning!
Awesome documentary. What a great initiative. Kudos to all the peopled involved both in creating bEartha and the documentary itself.
Thank you! Great to hear you enjoyed it!
Amazing, thanks!
:)
I want a bEartha 3.0!
So inspiring, love it so much
Yay :)
Thank you so much Happen Films for making and sharing this beautiful story. Congratulations to Ben and the team for getting this up and running. Inspiring!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Suzanne :)
love this so much, hopefully there will be 10 bEarthas in the next couple years
Ben is the gentle giant of composting! Happy for you and proud of you and the team that has brought all of this together. We compost at our home and use it in our cut flower garden. Great job, Ben! (Kentucky, USA)
Ben and team,(Asante sana -is Swahili for -Many thanks for your passion in humanity from me,a humble farmer all the way from Kenya.
May you reach the whole world with this amazing technology.
Excellent.
Nice to see what humans do when big corps aren't involved.
This is fabulous we need this project/program world wide.
tenho certeza que vai ser uma grande série
Many Blessings:) Thank you for taking Conscious Action:) SAVE SOIL:)
What a beautiful documentary
Thank you so much for sharing this lovely story. So many thank yous for this wonderful man. ❤
Thank you so much for the story. I like the fact that you left the boxing job which was some how forced way of making a leaving. I see now a smile in you with happiness am Impressed and i believe that i will also get that point here in Uganda😄
Wow thank you for sharing this video. I think all countries need to do this in order to save our planet 🙏🙏🙏
I'm so glad I found this video tonight. What a wonderful project and the story of your journey was told so beautifully. As soon as I saw the large green drum of bEartha 1, I thought to myself - that's MY idea! I have been making my own garden compost for many years, and a few years ago I came up with pretty much this same idea, using a large rotating drum to process larger amounts of organic waste. I imagined the drum would be the size of a commercial cement truck drum, and that the finished compost would slide down a chute on the back of the drum. My idea incorporated a heating element to speed the process, but now I'm thinking that wouldn't be needed. I like the idea of internal sensors to monitor compost temperatures. I'd love to see someone set up composting machines like this across the U.S.
Great job!
P.S. Just today I picked up 6 bags of leaves from a neighbor and took them to the garden for composting. I enjoy composting as much as I do growing food. :)
🥰❤🌱 Thank you, thank you, thank you Ben & bEartha, you make me inspire and happy to know you (your community) are in the world ❤❤❤ くみこ
Beautiful compost!
Beautiful Film Production.
Inspiring.
Congratulations and Thank you for all for your efforts.
Another inspiring video, thank you all🙏🏼
“Living the dream.” I love it so happy for you guys.
So inspiring, Ben and the rest of the crew are real heroes!
Thank you to share your story.
Let’s stop exploiting animals, please.
Still we didn't learn from past errors that exploiting animals and nature will lead us to catastrophe.
Oh the ways we learn with determination and integrity. Congratulations what amazing people you all are and what a wonderful incentive.
Bertha could had been an old concrete mixer???
I look forward to visiting your area and facilities.
I also intend to make paper and backing with our waste from embroidery.
I love gardens and composting is one way we share environmental safe usage to our communities.
So happy I stumbled on your video. I experienced many nice moments and smiles while doing so.
All The Best
Beautiful film and story! So inspiring :)
Thanks for watching! :)
Happen Films, thank you for this hopeful work! You share the light of others with broader audiences.
Thank you!
Good initiative for community gardens 🏡
Thanks for your vid 😇💟💟💟 Love and bless you guys, good work.
Thanks for checking it out :)
Just came across this channel. It is awesome and thanks very much for informing us Kiwis as to what is in our communities. Annamieke from Kawerau
Thanks!
Thanks so much!
Every person involved in this endeavor should be extremely proud to be a part of the community effort to make use of all of the gifts here on our earth that should not go to waste but benefits mankind… bless each and everyone of you an exemplary example of what can be done when a powerhouse of likeminded efforts join as one…
Composting was the most important thing I started doing a few years ago. We have zero food waste now and it's easy to do for anyone with a backyard.
This is an amazing project that returns to earth. I can only ever imagine it in my city, because it's in India and a 2-tier city which is hugely populated and the service of environment in any system is such a mess. And it's not easy to find people who are willing to be responsible and separate the wastes and put it aside.
Maybe one day into far future, If I ever come near the resources that this type of project requires, then maybe I could try it.
Such an amazing story of perseverance and sticking to a goal of making a difference. Great job to you and your team.
WOW! 😃
this is such a great doc team. So through, a story shared so beautifully
Thank you! A lot of love went into creating this film :)
Great work, very inspiring from the UK
Wonderful project run by really inspiring people. Well done.
Fascinating, thanks from Japan.
Thanks
Thank you!
Way to go, guys ❤
Thank you very much for your perseverance, resilience, community effort and passion!!!!
All the best going forward! You are all a true inspiration :)
I compost a bit but I would like to make more. I've been thinking of getting with grocery stores and coffee shops to get more. This video has brought me more commitment.
Great to hear! Good luck with your composting adventures :)