University Administrator Falls in Love With Worms!

Red wigglers of course… Pictured here with a smaller batch of the wrigglers, she’s already known as the “compost queen” of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Now Andilee Warner is taking that title a bit farther than most by proposing to bring 2 million of the red wigglers onto campus. They'll be housed in a newly built pole barn on campus and spend their school days aiding in the decomposition of the close to 1000 pounds of wasted food thrown away each day in the school’s dorms and cafeterias. Things like that half-eaten bagel or stale bag of chips, wilting salads that have been laying around for a bit too long, and even just plain old leftovers the school generates when no one buys them from the cafeteria. And she’s thought ahead too, because during times like the summer when classes aren’t in session they’ll be dining on the wasted paper all bureaucracies turn out en masse by simply shredding it up and feeding it to them. That will keep the worms wiggling happily all summer, and keep the paper out of the landfill. What about during the winter when cooler temperatures mean worms start getting sluggish and eating less? That’s easy; just heat the barn with used motor oil from the campus fleet of cars to keep them munching away! And while they’re busy munching and crunching their way through school waste, agriculture classes will get the chance to harvest their waste and research its use as a fertilizer. Can you beat that?
via::Chicago Tribune