Worms at Work brings together design, sustainability and digital innovation to show how composting can be both a community experience and a source of valuable environmental data.
Each composting bench is fitted with small, battery-powered sensors that quietly monitor what’s happening inside, from compost health to how often the benches are used.
The data is shared through an interactive public dashboard, so everyone can see how the benches are performing in real time and learn how simple, local actions can support a more sustainable city.
The Worms at Work dashboard provides a real-time snapshot of compost health and community use.
It shows key indicators such as compost moisture, temperature, and pH, alongside metrics like seat usage and the amount of food waste diverted from landfill.
The dashboard is updated automatically every three hours and can be viewed by anyone interested in following the progress of the pilot.
What it does: Detects vibrations to sense when someone is sitting on the bench.
Features: Small, accurate movement detection, battery-operated (long-term use), uses LoRaWAN network for wireless data transmission.
Why it’s important: Helps us understand how often the bench is used, so we can plan maintenance and ensure it’s a welcoming spot for everyone.
What it does: Measures compost moisture levels to keep worms healthy.
Features: Accurate moisture readings, compost temperature readings, Compost conductivity temperature compensation, corrosion-resistant, battery-operated (long-term use), uses LoRaWAN network for wireless data transmission.
Why it’s important: Ensures the compost stays at the right moisture level for worms to thrive, preventing it from getting too dry or too wet.
What it does: Checks the compost acidity to support worm health.
Features: Precise pH measurement, compost temperature, battery-operated (long-term use), uses LoRaWAN network for wireless data transmission.
Why it’s important: Keeps the compost pH balanced, creating a healthy environment for worms to live and work.
What it does: Monitors air quality around the bench.
Features: Measures TVOC, eCO2, temperature and relative humidity, battery-operated (long-term use), uses LoRaWAN network for wireless data transmission.
Why it’s important: Ensures the air around the bench is clean and safe, protecting both worms and visitors.
What it does: Monitors air quality around the bench.
Features: Measures eCO2, temperature and humidity, battery-operated (long-term use), uses LoRaWAN network for wireless data transmission.
Why it’s important: Helps monitor air quality and ventilation inside the bench. High CO₂ levels can indicate poor airflow or anaerobic conditions that affect worm health. Ensuring balanced CO₂ levels supports optimal composting and provides valuable data on environmental conditions around installation.
What it does: Detects when the seat is opened to add food scraps.
Features: Uses a Hall effect sensor to detect open/close status, battery-operated long-term use), uses LoRaWAN network for wireless data.
Why it’s important: Tracks when food scraps are added, helping us monitor feeding schedules and ensure worms have enough food.
What it does: Monitors odour levels and air quality inside the worm bench.
Features: Measures hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, temperature and relative humidity, battery-operated (long-term use), uses LoRaWAN network for wireless data transmission.
Why it’s important: Helps identify when the worm farm may be producing unpleasant odours due to overfeeding, excess moisture, or poor aeration.
Digital Innovation Challenges are open competitions supporting innovation and collaboration. They help test digital solutions that tackle important city challenges.
The Worms at Work pilot brings together clever sensor technology and nature to create an intuitive, well-monitored composting experience for everyone. We’re also sharing this data with the community through public dashboards, so everyone can follow the progress of the pilot in real time.
All sensors operate on low power wide area network (LoRaWAN) using dedicated City of Melbourne gateways. The data is sent and stored in the City of Melbourne’s data lake.
The data is used by City of Melbourne and the Pilot Collaborators to measure the impacts of the bench designs and inform how we could plan and design food waste management initiatives like this in the future. The data is also shared with the community via the dashboard on this page.
This data is stored permanently for any possible future analysis and for records.
Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners
The City of Melbourne respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land we govern, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin and pays respect to their Elders past and present. We acknowledge and honour the unbroken spiritual, cultural and political connection they have maintained to this unique place for more than 2000 generations.
We accept the invitation in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and are committed to walking together to build a better future.
