Home Garden - Worms work for your benefit
 Stephen Holmes with KESAB trophy |
In Adelaide South Australia we generate 735
kilograms of kerbside collected rubbish per household each year that goes to
landfill and that excludes the green organics component that is collected
and windrow composted for reuse. However when that kerbside collected
rubbish is buried in municipal dumps the putrescible component, which is
23.5% by weight, slowly breaks down and releases methane (CH4) in
the process to the atmosphere where it is causing our planet’s
protective ozone layer to degenerate in parts, creating a greenhouse
effect, that is slowly warming Mother Earth. The total release of methane globally is more or -less equally contributed to from 3 sources; those being car exhausts, belching cattle and decomposing landfill gasses. |
What is so tragic about the vast
areas of landfill required to bury our waste is that percentage which is
green organic and putrescible, means it could be recycled through worm farms
to create useful by-products such as the removal of airborne carbon residues
to create stable soil-enhancing worm by-products, effectively depositing
carbon to the earth’s carbon sink, by the process of carbon sequestration.
The worm by-products are nutrient rich worm castings laced with a multitude
of microorganisms and catalysts that accelerate plant nutrient uptake and
improve soil structure in gardens and under cultivated crops. Doc & Katy
Abraham are gardening writers of over 50 years experience each in New York
state in the USA and they claim that “Earthworm castings contain 5 times the
nitrate, 7 timers the phosphorus, 11 times the potash and 1.5 times the
calcium found in the best top soil in the United States.” [source; “Green
Thumb Wisdom” 1996, ISBN 0-88266-928-1.] That should be the incentive we
need to use more of these worm by-products, since we cannot always increase
earthworm numbers.
Another valuable by-product is the liquid gold that is generated as
composting worms consume green organic matter and putrescible or kitchen and
food preparation wastes as well as cellulose wastes in the form of paper,
cardboard, bamboo frass and similar bast fibres.
Composting worms ingest many chemical fertilizer residues left from
inefficient broad acre fertilising and render harmless, even enhancing the
nutrient carrying capacity to the satisfaction of organic vegetable and
fruit producers. In sterile soils that have been overdosed with surfactants
or detergents as part of the herbicide spray program on farms, they
reintroduce active microorganisms that quickly aid the uptake of previously
locked up nutrients and offset plant deficiencies caused by the soil
sterility.
A closed system composting worm facility could greatly reduce landfill costs
and enhance your local environment at the same time. The worm by-products
are readily marketable to organic certified producers, but markets for these
need to be developed at the planning stage and forward contracts arranged to
defray establishment costs.
Wormswork Technologies in South Australia have perfected the closed system
compost worm farming technique and currently reduce 225,000 cubic metres of
cellulose and abattoir waste to worm by-products each year. Perhaps we can
help you reduce your municipal or industrial waste, enhance your environment
and have your local organic producers as beneficiaries also. It’s a
win-win-win for all concerned.