Quote of the Day: The Math of Worm Castings

"Today I was adding up the numbers. On Saturday, we started 26 worm bins. If each bin consumes 1/2 pound of scraps a day, as a group, we will save 1,170 pounds of food scraps from entering landfills in only 90 days. In a year, we will have turned 4,745 pounds (or 2.37 tons) of food scraps into nutrient rich compost. Those numbers don't even include the paper.

The small things really do add up!"

- Jill Tondu, the instructor from the vermicompost class we attended on Saturday, calculating the amount of food waste the compost bins will have diverted from landfills in one year.

We, like some of our classmates, have been having a bit of trouble keeping the worms in the bin, because they've been trying to escape through the air holes near the top of the bin. As Jill explained on Saturday, this is normal behavior for the first 5-7 days that it will take for the worms to become accustomed to their new environment. Now, we've got bright lights pointed at the bin to discourage the worms from trying to make a break for it.

-Mark