My Garbage, My Neighborhood is a documentary project that takes on urban space through the lens of its trash. As it circles and zigzags through the streets of San Francisco and a unique community recycling center and native plant nursery in Golden Gate Park, the project unveils an underground culture of green thumb scavengers and community activists striving to save the planet one bottle, can or native plant at a time. The film is a surprising look at the logistics, conflicts, traditions, and value systems associated with this complicated movement towards a cleaner, greener future.

Questions of ownership inevitably manifest: mandatory recycling laws in San Francisco require residents to participate in the three-bin trash system operated by Recology (formerly Norcal). Black is for trash, blue is for recycling and green for compost. Those bins and their contents on the streets of San Francisco are a hotly contested public arena. Recology cannot afford to process our trash if we do not donate our recycling to them but scavengers regularly pick from these bins all across the city. Bin subscribers are mixed, some preferring to sort their goods so scavengers can easily get to them and others vehemently opposed to trash pickers. Scavengers are now poachers and recycling is a commodity everyone wants to cash in on.

James is a Vitenam Veteran who walks four miles a day collecting bottles and cans. Kevin uses his car to recycle through neighborhoods at night and sleeps on the beach. Joe is 71 years old, and collects from the San Francisco public transportation system on his way home from groceries.

The Haight Ashbury Recycling Center and Native Plant nursery was formed in 1974 to give people a place to recycle when there was none. Located on Golden Gate parkland, the center now faces regular opposition from residents and city officials who do not consider it a conforming use of the park as described by founder John McLaren. The film traces San Francisco's urban and ecological development from the days of John McLaren's park mandate to Adolph Sutro's non-native plantation and shows the extraordinary growth and architectural development of the city since the 1800's.

My Garbage, My Neighborhood reveals a series of interesting questions framing our urban eco future. To whom does our trash belong? To whom does our land belong? Do the demands of modern life lend itself to a green future? And, finally, who gets to decide what our future will be like?