Boulder Vermicomposting

CA Dept of Pesticide Regulation Fines Castings Producer

Via this news article, I learned that a California producer of worm castings, Worm Gold, was fined 100K by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.  The fine was because the Worm Gold product is touted as “helping plants repel bugs”, and so should be classified as a pesticide, and thus regulated.

This is being fought as a free speech case–you can find out more here.

2 comments June 15th, 2010

Earthworms used for coffee waste

Via Clean Technica, I found this article about the Rogers Family Company using redworms to process their coffee waste.  Apparently, coffee processing generates a fair bit of organic waste, and this was decomposing and  leaking into groundwater.

So, leveraging techniques used elsewhere, including in Selva Negra in Chiapas Mexico, they set up worm bins on their farm in Panama.  The goal?  Process 5000 tons of coffee pulp and turn that into free fertilizer for independent growers.  The company ended up with “10,000 square meters [of worm bins] filled with a billion worms”.  I asked why they chose E. Foetida, rather than one of the worms more suited to the tropics (as outlined here [PDF]); I’ll be interested to see their answer.

Talk about industrial vermicomposting!  I remember reading a while ago about ‘decompiculture’ (PDF here) which is the idea of “growing or culturing of decomposer organisms by humans”, the same way that agriculture is the growing or culturing of plants and herbivores.  Decomposers, whether redworms, bacteria or mushrooms, can help address some of our most fundamental issues of garbage management by turning waste into useful substances.  This project showcases decompiculture.

Pssst!  You should complete the cycle and vermicompost your coffee grounds.

Full press release here, and full blog post with pictures here.

2 comments May 13th, 2010

Super Market Composting Handbook

Via John Anderson, I found the Supermarket Composting Handbook (2MB pdf), produced by JFConnolly & Associates and WasteCap of Massachusetts.  This handbook, while it doesn’t mention worm composting, is a fantastic resource for anyone who is attempting to implement composting at a corporate level.  It discusses the economics of composting vs trash hauling, monitoring program success, employee training, has sample contracts and signage for employees and consumers, and in general appears to be a fantastic resource.

Here’s my favorite takeaway from the Handbook:

As waste disposal costs rise and the need to help improve our environment becomes increasingly more important, supermarket operators are looking for alternatives to reduce disposal costs through recycling more of their waste. Seventy five percent (75%) of most supermarket waste, after recycling cardboard, paper and plastics, is comprised of non-recyclable biodegradable materials including discarded food, waxed and wet cardboard, paper, renderings, soil, and plants. Recycling these wastes through composting can be a lower cost alternative to disposal and makes a lot of sense for supermarkets.

Of course, the economics for composting vs recycling vs landfilling are different for every location, but this handbook makes evaluating composting as a solution easy.

Add comment April 10th, 2010

Interview: Outdoor vermicomposting

I received an email from Jim McIntyre at Covered Bridge Organic, in Ohio.  He’s another worm bin vendor, but with a slightly different take.  His focus is on outside worm bins, as well as hot composting.  Currently, he is running trials on keeping worms outside during the Ohio winter, using a two shell composting system, with leaves or other insulation in between.  I was able to ask him a few questions about his experiences.

Dan: How long have you been doing composting?  How long have you been doing worm composting?

Jim: I’ve been composting, though not continuously, for 20 years. Began with windrow composting of dairy and horse manures used in growing produce as a member of Covered Bridge Organic Farms Coop. The Wishing Well composter I developed is a spin-off from the ag coop. At a recycling trade show nine years ago I bought the working display model from a vermiculture exhibitor and kept it working in the basement, then in the garage when we moved.

We’re an independent distributor of the smaller Soilsaver Classic compost bin along with our larger Wishing Well design. When I needed more room in the garage two years ago, I dumped the worm bin contents into a Soilsaver that was set up outside by the back door. As fall came, the worm bin’s indoor space was gone. I had to figure a way to leave those poor worms out in the cold. I made a blanket of leaves stuffed between the larger Wishing Well bin surrounding the Soilsaver containing the worms. Easy, an off the shelf fix, or so I hoped. After a cold northern Ohio winter, I opened the bottom gate on the Soilsaver to find hundreds of worms in the very first shovel full.

D: Why do you prefer outdoor worm composting to indoor worm composting?

J: Worms belong outside. No flies, odor, chance of spillage while moving,  floor space taken up, nor mess on the floor while cleaning.

D: What are possible upsides/downsides of outdoor vermicomposting that people should consider?

J: The two factors to affect outdoor vermicomposting are weather and volume. Temperature extremes need to be avoided: summer’s heat and winter’s cold. The volume of the bin’s contents needs to be of sufficient mass to allow for migration of the worms to a favorable environment.

D: What particular challenges of indoor vermicomposting does outdoor vc overcome?

J: As above–Worms belong outside. No flies, odor, chance of spillage while moving,  floor space taken up, nor mess on the floor while cleaning.

D: How do you use your vermicompost/castings?

J: Mid-spring, as weather warms, I remove the Wishing Well enclosure from around the Soilsaver worm bin, open the bottom access doors and begin to shovel out the finished material onto a 2 foot by 3 foot piece of plywood placed over  a wheelbarrow. As worms avoid light by migrating into the pile, the top layers are pealed into the wheelbarrow until remaining worm mass is saved. Continue to harvest, then place the worms back into the bin. Wheel barrow contents is then used in spring planting.

D: How is surrounding a soil saver with a wishing well and stuffing leaves between superior to using hay bales or bags of leaves?

J: Makes a more visually attractive outdoor appliance that is easy to assemble. Offers an insulated winter worm composter that can be separated into a spring through fall yard waste composter, the Wishing Well, and a separate worm composter, the Soilsaver, for 9 months of the year.  Leaves are free, hay bales can be hard to find and costly in urban areas.

D: Any advice to starting worm composters?

J: Worms are not tender creatures with exotic needs. They can ingest a wide range of organic materials, survive in a temperature range from 30′s up to almost 100F, migrate to find food, avoid light and pH extremes. Composting worms are native to Europe, and have been introduced  to every other continent except  the Antarctic. They’re hardy creatures which are native all over the world.  Keep them outside where they belong.

D: As far as your business goes, have you found people receptive to worm composting?  Is outdoor hot composting an alternative or a first step towards worm composting?

J: This is the second year of field trials. Although I’ve found much supportive data on the Net, we’ve not yet developed a product package. Outdoor hot composting during the summer in the Wishing Well could be a preliminary step to worm composting in the Soilsaver during winter.

Add comment March 22nd, 2010

UK Barber banned from composting hair

“Hairdresser Jeff Stone was told he was breaking the law because his clients’ disgarded locks were classified as trade waste.”  The issue appears to be ensuring “[business'] waste was not harming the environment”. Here’s the Blackburn with Darwin council page on trade waste.

At first, I thought this was just another silly government action.  However, as there are health concerns regarding hair dyes, composting may or may not be the best way to deal with the substance.  (Whether folks should be putting such chemicals into their hair is another matter.)

There are more details in the Telegraph story, and here’s Jeff Stone’s (the barber) contact information.

Via Care2

Add comment February 15th, 2010

Industrial Worm Food Processor

Via this article, I found out about Organic Food Waste Digesters, a company in Britain that builds worm food processors.

From the article:

There are four models, each with different processing capabilities: the Mini will process up to 90-120kg of mixed organic waste per week; Small does 180-250kg; Standard is up to 350kg; and Tandem suits larger mixed organic waste streams of up to 750kg.

With that amount of waste processing capacity (90-120kg is about 200-250 lbs), the cost, and the compact, contained nature of the digester, these are clearly aimed at commercial operations.  I don’t know many families that create 200lbs of food and yard waste every week .  If you’re a British reader, they are looking for someone to help run a collection/distribution hub.

It is heartening to see a business built on vermicomposting, especially one that reaches beyond the typical “sell redworms, sell worm bins, sell vermicompost”.

1 comment February 12th, 2010

Vermicomposting and vermiculture around the world

I get email every time Google finds a post using the words ‘redworms’ or ‘vermiculture’.  (You can set up the same thing with Google Alerts.)  I have been letting these accumulate in my inbox, but there are a number of interesting articles showing the wide-ranging nature of vermicomposting, so I thought I’d compile and publish them.

Grand Rapids, Michigan sent a beekeeper to Nicaragua; there he learned vermiculture and now has “a compost pile with thousands of red worms.” In Detroit, Justin Pawloske “[collects] food from two area grocery stores that otherwise would have found its way into a landfill, and [composts] it with the use of worms”.

In Wisconsin, Will Allen of Growing Power uses worms in his composting systems on his urban farms because “[t]he worm castings make great fertilizer.”

A number of schools are doing vermicomposting.  In Utah, West Point grade school is “using Red Wigglers to compost cafeteria scraps”.  In Ontario,  Scott Young Public School is also vermicomposting their cafeteria waste.  In Kansas, Starside Elementary has set up vermicomposting systems, where “red worms eat food scraps, newspapers, and even junk mail.” In Ithaca, Caroline Elementary school’s fourth grade class is vermicomposting.

In Pennsylvania, the Haverford House, a part of Haverford College, is vermicomposting.

In the developing world,  Spier Hotel, in Zambia, has a “waste-plus-worms-equals-compost vermiculture programme” as well as other sustainability initiatives.  They are using Biolytix [PDF], an Australian sewage technology.

In India, villages are setting up backyard vermicomposting and selling vermicompost.

In Guatemala, a non profit considered using vermiculture as a profitable rural enterprise.

In South Africa, vermiculture is part of an “agricultural job-creation project.”

In the Philipines, residents who have been resettled near Bayanijuan plan to “start a vermiculture project.” There’s also a facebook page about a vermiculture project in that country.

In Minnesota, Mark Campbell, a resident of Edina,  “tosses his kitchen waste in his vermiculture bin in the basement and uses the “tea” and castings to fertilizer his garden.” He also “ripped up most of the grass in his yard because he considers grass a waste of precious resources”.  You can view a video of Mark here, though it focuses on fruit trees and apple crisp.

In Massachusetts, residents of cities with ‘pay as you throw’ garbage collection use vermicompost to save money and process their food scraps.

The Wall Street Journal reviews various composting options, including the Worm Factory, a vermicomposting bin.

In Maine, Redworms for a Green Earth exhibited at the Green Home and Living Show.  Redworms were also featured at the Christ Episcopal Church‘s ‘Blessing of the Animals’ in Ponte Vedra, Florida.  In California, a real estate blogger covers why vermicomposting is important for green real estate.

And, because this is a blog about worms in Colorado, here’s another great article about John Anderson and his company Garbage Busters.

I also got a lot of fishing reports–apparently redworms really are popular with fishermen!

2 comments November 25th, 2009

A visit with the Worm Ladies of Charlestown

While on vacation in June, I had a chance to visit one of the Worm Ladies of Charlestown.  Lois was kind enough to show me and my fiancee’s family around.

Worm Ladies of Charlestown Logo

She has an integrated operation–growing rabbits and red wrigglers.  The rabbits Lois raises are sold for pets (her partner raises angoras and sells the hair, hence the domain name).  The redworms are sold by the pound, or in kits.  They also produce castings for sale to gardeners.  She mentioned that they have an industrial worm separator (purchased used from a fellow who used to sell castings), at her partner’s place, so I didn’t get to see the castings separation process.

Worm bin underneath rabbith hutch

Above is a rabbit hutch with a worm bin (the blue plastic bin).  Hay placed in the hutch for food and rabbit bedding falls into the worm bin, as does the rabbit poop and pee (I also noticed other vegetable and leafy matter, so there may be auxiliary feeding).  The redworms convert that waste product into more worms and castings–what great synergy!

However, it is not a totally sustainable operation–the ladies have found the best redworm bedding is coir from Sri Lanka (there are husks available from Mexico, but these are laced with salt).  Lois said they switched from peat moss to coir for bedding because “it is much easier to hydrate.  [It] is not as acidic as peat, [and is] easy to ship in a kit because of it being in block form.”

Coir that the Worm Ladies use

Lois said she used to keep the worms in cinder block squares under the rabbit hutches, but has converted to the rubbermaid bins because it is easier to bring them inside during the harsh winters.  She has a workspace where she keeps the worms during the winter, and does other various Worm Lady activities.

Winter worm storage and workspace

In addition to the bins underneath the rabbits, Lois also has standard compost bins, like mine, that she uses for extra worm habitat.  You can see her in front of these bins–she had about four that I could see.

In front of compost bins (extra worm habitat)

She also vermicomposted chicken manure, like Forest did in Hawaii, and mentioned that neither the rabbit manure nor the chicken poop smelled after the worms had been at it for 24 hours.

Lois also mentioned doing a lot of outreach–talking to home school groups and elementary school kids, and educating people in how worms can turn garbage into gardening gold.  She certainly did a fine job of showing us around her operation.

As far as the business end of the wormkeeping goes, Lois had no complaints.  The worm ladies incorporated in 2009, but have had tremendous demand for years (since 2003, when a newspaper interview sent her and her partner “reeling into business”), for both castings and worms.  She has done some exploring of other business models (eco tourism, bed and breakfast) but after looking at the numbers decided to focus on worms.

The Worm Ladies have sold redworms as far afield as Canada and Alaska (they had a request from Jamaica, but weren’t sure what import/export hurdles were present).  She guestimated they sell about 600 pounds of redworms a year.  They have a buyback program started, where they will pay you $5/lb for unseparated worms and $8/lb for separated worms–which sounds like a good intro into the vermiculture business.  (If this piques your interest, I’d contact them for more details.)

Inside a small kit

In addition to selling castings and worms by the pound, the worm ladies sell two different sizes of kits.  In the kit, they have created habitat in a plastic bin suited for redworms–just moist enough, aerated holes predrilled, and with just enough bedding.  They sell you the bin, instructions and an appropriate weight of worms, and you can use the bin to ‘test drive’ worm keeping with little fear of failure.  (She also mentioned wormkits.com.)

Larger Redworm Kits

(I’m doing the same thing with a shiitake mushroom kit).  This is an exciting product to me because it lowers the barrier to entry for worm keeping–instead of having to spend around $100 for a full worm composting system, you can use one of these kits to see if you enjoy it.

Outside of smaller worm kits

All in all, it was a pleasure to get a chance to meet someone who loved worms as much as Lois obviously does (she signed an email to me ‘Wormly, Lois’!).  Reforming the waste stream that is currently in place is not going to be easy, but education and business ventures like the Worm Ladies of Charlestown are part of the effort.

2 comments August 17th, 2009

Durango Compost Company

Via the Durango Telegraph, I found this story about the Durango Compost Co, which details the genesis and progress of the Durango Compost Co, founded by Jennifer Craig.  This company is built around vermicomposting:

[Durango Composting Company] offers three main services: household composters and worms; public education; and commercial use and consulting. The Composting Co.’s most visible presence is at the Farmers Market, where Craig sells 35-gallon buckets of compost for $35; “compost tea,” a compost-steeped liquid used as fertilizer and to prevent plant disease; and the “Can-O-Worms” home worm composters. In addition, Craig also gives presentations at local schools and works with businesses, such as Ska Brewing and Cyprus Café, interested in worm composting.

The key to the company’s founding was the partnership with a coffee shop: “[Durango Coffee Company owner Tim Wheeler] would pay Craig to take his grounds off his hands. In exchange, he would get a cut of the profits from the final garden-ready product.”

I love to see business models around vermicomposting operations, as I believe they’re key to making the process really sustainable in the long term. I found no website for the Durango Compost Company and I was unable to find a telephone number, but the contact info for the coffee company is here.

6 comments July 2nd, 2009