EcoLOGICAL Tip #7: Vermicomposting

Trafton B.

October 17, 2010 - 11:44 AM

It's been a while since the last EcoLogical Tip and I know you were all wondering what the next step is in living sustainably. Well, I'll warn you that it isn't for the faint at heart. It has to do with closing the loop in our personal food cycle.

I'm sure we are all aware that composting is the process of turning food scraps and other organic material into natural fertilizer, but you might be wondering about the "vermi" part. Vermicomposting is the same exact process with the added effort of a few pounds of Red Wiggler earthworms. It's essentially the same process except instead of letting microbes decompose our house's food scraps and yard debris we are being more proactive with the matter. (No pun intended.)

According to the guy who made my new worm bin, more on him in a bit, these worms eat anywhere between one-half and their full body weight twenty-four hours. That means the pound of worms I have at the bottom of the bin will be plowing through up to a pound of our scraps every day! What's even more ridiculous is that those worms can also double their population every two to three months. At first I had the thought about whether or not we'd be able to provide the enough food for them, but then I remembered I live in a house of six guys. We go through a lot of food. I'm not worried.

Dan "The Worm Man" is the name of the fellow that made the worm bin, and half the fun in my vermicompost adventure was meeting Dan. He's was great! A truly classic Eugener that makes it a point to live an eco-friendly lifestyle, and he's a wealth of knowledge about worm composting.

He set me up with his standard three tray Dan "The Worm Man" bin, which he claims is a step above the rest in the world of vermicomposting. It's handcrafted from reclaimed wood rather than plastic, which means that I don't have to worry about any trace presence of production chemicals like benzene seeping into the worms' ecosystem. Also, I don't have to worry about any HCFCs and other ozone depleting gasses that are emitted when manufacturing plastic compost bins.

His stackable three-tray design is also makes Dan's worm bins unique. The photograph above shows the three bins leaning on each other rather than stacked (just for the same of the photo). Each tray fits one on top of the other so that it stacks just about two feet high when fully assembled.  The theory is that you start placing your waste materials in the bottom tray with the worms. As you continue adding organic materials to the bottom tray, the worms will work their way upwards to stay on top of the compost mound. When the first bin is full, we'll start adding to the second tray and the worms will move upwards through the layer of chicken wire between the two trays. Soon enough all of the worms will move out of bottom tray leaving a full load of worm castings behind.

Worm castings are generally recognized as some of the best organic fertilizer you can find. It won't pollute the local watershed like chemical fertilizers, it's easy to manage, and most importantly it doesn't smell, which my roommates particularly appreciate considering that my last attempt at a compost bin failed miserably. You could smell it from a block away.

There you have it. Vermicomposting is one way to completely eliminate your household food waste. Keep recycling and utilizing active transportation and you're well on your way to living a very ecological lifestyle.

If you have any questions then leave me a comment or check out Dan "The Worm Man's" website, if you're feeling ambitious go ahead and order one of his worm bins to try it out yourself.