University Administrator Falls in Love With Worms!
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 05.15.07
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
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Very cool. I iwhs they did this at my university.
A suboptimal solution.
It would be better to:
1) use the organic waste to generate electricity (biogas)
2) recycle the paper.
"Can you beat that?"
Yes, here at Rutgers University the food waste is fed to farm animals, producing valuable food instead of fertilizer. And yes, we recycle our paper too.
Aj
Your headline reminded me of the MST3K film "Squirms." Ah, memories...
Tim, I share your fond MST3K memories...
On the worm bin, it is a positive development, but not the be-all, end-all. While the media seems to love the 'feeding worms' story, there are some more useful things to do with food waste. Following the EPA's Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy, feeding animals, like Rutgers and many others do, is a better use of food scraps. Yet here's an even better idea: work with students to reduce that amount of plate waste that creates such a large surplus in the first place.
Rotting waste will generate enough heat for the barn. No sense in making things complicated. But don't hold me accountable for the smell.
Several years back the Chicago Public Schools was forced to look into the use of used motor oil it was using to heat some of their buildings. Seems that while lead was removed from gasoline in 1970, used motor oil still contained lead which when burned became airborne and settled on the nearby playgrounds and neighborhoods. Southern Illinois University you're a leader with the composting program but check out that lead and motor oil issue. Also someone should float Andilee Warner's name to the President. I hear he's looking for a qualified nominee for compost master general.
Several years back the Chicago Public Schools was forced to look into the use of used motor oil it was using to heat some of their buildings. Seems that while lead was removed from gasoline in 1970, used motor oil still contained lead which when burned became airborne and settled on the nearby playgrounds and neighborhoods. Southern Illinois University you're a leader with the composting program but check out that lead and motor oil issue. Also someone should float Andilee Warner's name to the President. I hear he's looking for a qualified nominee for compost master general.
I read the comments on this article and wanted to clarify a few points made by them. On, 'there are a lot better ways to use food waste than feeding worms, etc.'; worms transform food waste and recycle paper into the one substance that will provide the best way to feed the world, sustain the planets' green growth and actually improve our environment. A properly working worm farm has no bad odors. The end product, which is worm castings, takes compost to the higher level by breaking down the compounds to a level that plants can utilize immediately, whereas regular compost still needs to break down in the soil to become available to the plants. The pigs will still get fed, and so will humankind. Worms will save the planet. Worm castings have been shown to actually remove toxins from soil. How many more miracles do you need to be convinced.
The worms will still need feeding over the summer, they don;t live on paper! Coffee grounds and tea bags are a good diet if there is just a skeleton staff.We recently made Worm Tea plant fertilizer and sold it at our Middle School Craft Fair - the students got a taste of successful business as well as science and conservation/reduction. We brought a x160 microscope to the table and everyone looked at microbes in the compost - amazing! Finally, we made The Worm Movie, the how to get started and why we need to turn waste into a resource guide.