Sewage sludge is being sold in garden stores as “organic compost,” with consumers taking it home and using it in their gardens without knowing what it truly is, filmmaker Galassia Grassetto said in an interview this month.
“It’s a mixture of industrial, human and hospital waste, all concentrated together,” Grassetto said. “You can buy it as organic compost in bags. And people don’t realize, and they take it home and they put it in their gardens.”
That discovery is at the center of a new documentary, “The Sludge War.” In the film, Grassetto investigates what happens to the waste left behind after sewage is treated — a practice she said “has been deliberately hidden from the American public.”
After reviewing the film, John Stauber, who writes for the Organic Consumers Association, said the film documents the “poisoning” of a nation.
“For the very first time a major documentary exposes the massive, ongoing poisoning of every state in America, as each year billions of pounds of toxic sewage sludge is spread on crops, pastures, gardens, parks and lawns, disguised as ‘harmless organic fertilizer and compost,’” Stauber wrote.
In-person screenings of the new film are scheduled in New York, with additional showings planned in other states.
Hellbound and Down 