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Starting your own worm composting bin reduces the amount of waste that goes into municipal land fills every day. Municipal solid waste consists of paper and paperboard, yard trimmings, food waste, plastic, metals, wood, glass, textiles, rubber, leather and other materials. In 2005 the average person made 4.54 pounds of trash every day (a whole lot when you consider that in 1960 a person generated 2.68 pounds per day). This means that each person produces an average of 1,657 pounds of garbage every year. The good news is that approximately 65% of that trash is compostable. http://wastec.isproductions.net/webmodules/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=1123
It is estimated that a household of 4-6 people creates 6 pounds of compostable kitchen waste every week. The amount of worms you need depends on your average amount of kitchen waste. There is a 2:1 worm to food ratio, meaning that one pound of worms can compost .5 pounds of food per day. So two pounds of worms can compost one pound of kitchen waste every day. That’s seven pounds per week, and 365 pounds of waste each year. To get started take note of how much kitchen waste your household produces each week and adjust your worm to food ratio accordingly. Keep in mind that meat and dairy are not suitable for your worms! Red worms (Eisenia Foetida) are the best variety for your kitchen compost. There are some great websites http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/08/green-basics-vermicompost.php outlining the whole process, check them out!
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/redwormsedit.htm
http://home.howstuffworks.com/composting.htm/printable
http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html
http://www.ocrra.org/yardwaste_withworms.asp
reference link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicompost
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Expert Comments
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kalleflower
Here's another good site that breaks down the general "how to" of composting. http://ww... -
thecitizen
Cheapest, ready to rock composter found here: http://www.composters.com/compost-bin/garden-gourmet_93_1.php... -
argam
If you're compost pile is smelling bad you're not doing it the right way. It should have an earthy sm... -
vince
This is something I've been interested in for a long time but my local eco-store says that it can smell ... -
thecitizen
Terracycle has great info on composting: http://terracycle.net/composter.htm -
argam
I think that this will save more than 300lbs in waste.
The Creative Citizen Network:
Rotkapchen says:
Not called the Emerald City for nothing, the Seattle area has always been at the forefront of topics like this. King County has had a Master Recycler Composter program for years (http://www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/mrc/). See if you can start a program in your area.
posted 07/30/08 at 08:32 PM
kalleflower says:
Here's another good site that breaks down the general "how to" of composting.
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Organics/HomeCompost/
posted 07/05/08 at 10:26 PM
thecitizen says:
Cheapest, ready to rock composter found here: http://www.composters.com/compost-bin/garden-gourmet_93_1.php
posted 06/19/08 at 07:38 PM
argam says:
If you're compost pile is smelling bad you're not doing it the right way. It should have an earthy smell. There are two types of composting, backyard compsoting or worm composting. Worm composting can be done in apartaments because it does not smell at all and the worms do a great job of decomposing organic materials (make sure to never put any meat or dairy in the compost bin)
posted 05/22/08 at 06:01 PM
vince says:
This is something I've been interested in for a long time but my local eco-store says that it can smell really bad making me a little apprehensive about trying it in my apartment. Anybody doing this in the real world that can recommend a method for pulling it off in a way that won't take up a lot of space and also won't offend the senses?
posted 05/22/08 at 05:58 PM
thecitizen says:
Terracycle has great info on composting:
http://terracycle.net/composter.htm
posted 02/29/08 at 04:58 PM
argam says:
I think that this will save more than 300lbs in waste.
posted 08/17/07 at 06:49 PM