An incredible amount of waste that ends up in landfill could be recycled by a process called vermicomposting. It’s fun, easy, and best of all anyone can do it.
To start your worm farm, you will need a container, worm bedding, food scraps, and the worms. Courtesy of Worms Etc., Green Living Tips readers can get 10% off when buying composting worms!
For the container, just about any water-proof container could potentially work. Be creative and you probably already have something you can use. Repurposing a container just adds to the fun. Look for a container about a foot deep, wide, and long. The dimensions are really not that important. If you can’t find anything else, a 40 qt Rubbermaid tub will work fine. Remember to keep it small enough so that you can move it when full, but a larger container can compost more food.
Bedding is simply what the worms live in and is composed of fibrous materials. Old newspaper, cardboard, cereal boxes, paper towels, old leaves or any other fibrous and natural material will work. Add a layer about 3 inches deep and be sure that it is moist enough so that about a drop of water can be easily squeezed from it.
The fun part of all of this is feeding the worms. They will eat just about any food scraps except meat and dairy. At first they will eat a little slow, but within a month or so each pound of worms can consume between 1-2 pounds of food scraps per week. Be sure not to overfeed them though and wait until the previous scraps are nearly eaten before adding new.
The muscle behind the whole operation are a special sort of worm called red wrigglers, or composting worms. As a special offer for readers of Green Living Tips from Worms Etc, use the coupon code: glt10 and get 10% discount when you buy Red Wiggler Composting Worms.
Within several days after ordering your worms, you will receive an email with tracking info and an expected arrival date. The worms will arrive happy and healthy despite the shipping.
Upon opening the box you will find a white cloth bag. The bag is surrounded with a recycled packing fill, that can be used as bedding. Also a sheet of paper with further instructions for keeping the worms happy is included.
All you need to do is open the white bag, dump the worms on top of the prepared worm bin and they should move down into the bedding all by themselves. They will begin eating the paper and whatever else is in the composter right away. With these hungry guys around there will be no need to throw these waste materials out, just simply throw into the composter for the red wriggler composting worms to do their work!