Project Styroworms: Empowering Environmental Action Through Superworms and Poop

By: Erin of KIS

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Responsible consumption and production, Climate action
Two figures kneeling at the end of my school’s fourth-floor hallway. In front of them, an ominous black box emitting a putrid stench. It was a tragicomic sight: both of us were hard at work, digging into flaky white excrement as we shivered the icy winter air. We spent hours hand-picking, inspecting, and relocating superworms the Friday before winter break, on a mission to save the world.

In December of 2021, my friend Joseph and I co-launched Project Styroworms, an initiative that uses superworms — organisms discovered to biodegrade polystyrene — as a learning model to spread awareness and empower the next generation to take environmental action. Since then, we invested considerable time enduring the foul odor and physical discomfort from tending to the worm farm we installed at school. It was drudgery, yes, but we kept going at the thought of the reactions of younger students. Every "Eww!" and giggle reaped the fruits of labor.

The monotony of these humble tasks laid the groundwork for a series of workshops that engaged over 200 elementary, middle, and high school students across Korea. Among the various activities we had prepared (many of which were tailored for each age group), the hands-on interactions with the worms remained effective in helping all students grasp the importance of taking initiative on global environmental issues. Grade four or high school seniors, this moment was where genuine curiosity blossomed among everyone who participated in our workshop. Here, we all possessed a shared sense of wonder regarding the extent to which superworms can contribute to waste reduction and environmental sustainability. Such mutual perspectives constitute the foundation of the Project Styroworms impact: fostering community empowerment and small-scale change for an environmentally conscious future.

Our take on empowering the youth was completely feasible as high school students: all that was required was creativity for us to inspire youth advocacy in an engaging and unconventional manner. Reflecting on our three-year journey with Project Styroworms, we realize that sometimes the most impactful actions require small steps toward environmental stewardship that bring us closer to a brighter, sustainable future for generations to come. Our small steps took the form of foul odor, dead superworms, and even darkling beetles (metamorphosed superworms) that had escaped the enclosure; to us, they were not a deterrence to our mission, but part of the messy yet rewarding adventure of transforming curiosity into tangible environmental action.