Roseville Students Vie For Scholarship in Environmental Challenge

ROSEVILLE (CBS13) - A group of local high school students are trying to win some green by going green.

The students came up with a way to get rid of garbage on campus by using worms.

Move over jocks and cheerleaders.

"The worm's kind of our mascot," said senior Scott Burdick.

Four students at Woodcreek High School in Roseville are changing the world, one slimy worm at a time.

"They're not as gross as you would think they are," said one student.

These worms have an important job turning hundreds of pounds of school trash into compost.

"We just throw all the stuff and they do all the work for us," a student said.

"This is one of the little things that we're going to have to get used to if we want to keep our world the way it is," said Burdick.

Their passion is now getting national attention. The Wigglers wiggled their way to the top team in California for the "Siemens' We Can Change The World" challenge. The winner gets a $50,000 scholarship.

"We're just a group of kids that really care about their environment," said one student.

They saw a major problem.

"Right now about 55,000 tons of organic waste goes into the landfills," said teacher Kendra Grinse.

So, they looked for a greener solution.

"We did this to teach people how easy it is," said Grinse.

Get a plastic tub, put holes in it, and begin to fill it with organic trash.

"Leaves, grass, fruits and veggie scraps, old newspaper makes great bedding," said Grinse.

Put in a hundred worms, keep it moist, and in just a few weeks you've got nice rich soil.

"Now you can solve a lot of environmental issues from reducing waste in the landfills to using less synthetic fertilizer," said Grinse.