From January to March 2005 BBC World will profile examples of the kind of project we are looking for in the Hands On
short form programmes. These examples will also be profiled in Newsweek in a special advertising feature.

Click an image below to view project.

1. TRASH TO TREASURE:
Roof Gardening In St. Petersburg

Like every big city, Russia's St. Petersburg grapples with its share of garbage. But a group of apartment dwellers there have perfected a technique to turn mountains of waste into a verdant rooftop vegetable garden.

The all-female team of urban farmers, who began in 1994 with funding from the European Union, transforms up to 220 pounds of rotting vegetables per week into rich compost. The waste is first brought to the basement, where it is pulped and added to a container filled with worms, peat moss and ground eggshells. After two or three months, the mixture is ready.

The worms are removed to another container and the finished fertilizer is taken up to the roof. Though summers are short, the gardeners generate a bumper crop of berries, lettuce, beans, radishes and other fruits and vegetables, with a small surplus they sell at a modest profit.

In addition to the fresh produce, the cooperative has reduced the building's trash collection costs by 30,000 rubles per year, says Alla Sokol, one of the club's members. "If every building and family did the same, imagine how much cleaner big cities like ours would be."