The Composters: Documentary film by Indivar Jonnalagadda

It’s another weekday for the crew at Bennett Compost. Hundreds of paying customers have left buckets-full of food scraps and other organic waste on their front curb across Philadelphia city. The crew set out in trucks to gather these heaps of organic waste materials and then there’s the patient work of processing the waste into nutrient rich compost. Can this ecologically beneficial work be done in the absence of robust city infrastructures and clear codes? Can it be done while paying workers a decent wage and providing them essential benefits? Can all this be done while making a profit to keep the enterprise sustainable? This is the story of The Composters, a story of an enterprise that strives to align these various motives.

Directed by Indivar Jonnalagadda, Philadelphia, May 2021.

Watch the film below.