Start a Vermicomposting Bin

Go Green in the Kitchen by Recycling Your Food Scraps

Jun 1, 2008 S. Elliott

Teach your children about going green by showing them how nature recycles food scraps. Vermiposting uses worms to make compost, and it's easy, odorless, and fascinating.

If you want to cure your children of their fear of bugs, teach them about nature, reduce waste and make some great compost along the way, start a vermiposting bin. Vermicomposting is the process of making rich organic compost using worms. Vermicomposting is a wonderful way to go green in your kitchen and recycle food scraps. You can start a bin in a closet or in the basement, and the process is odorless and easy. It uses old newspapers and much of what you'd send down the garbage disposal. In a few weeks, you'll have some of the best compost on the planet.

Help Teach Your Children About Nature

Okay, there are worms involved. But the worms are contained; they don't smell, and they work like little whirlwinds to convert stuff you would throw away into something useful and organic. Your children can participate in a natural process that uses beneficial bugs. They can feed these harmless worms and watch them turn garbage into compost that will grow big, juicy vegetables for your table, or beautiful flowers for your garden.

Starting Your Homemade Vermiposting Bin

There are a number of commercially available vermiposting kits, but you can start your own for pennies with a plastic bin (with a lid) in which you've drilled ventilation and drainage holes, and a pound of red wiggler worms (Eisenia foetida) you've purchased from the bait shop. It's that easy. The bin should be around 20" x 30" and have quarter inch holes drilled in the bottom and sides. You will also need some cheap screening material to place on the bottom of the bin and a couple of bricks to raise it off the floor.

Making a Home for Worms

Shred newsprint into pieces not larger than an inch across and moisten with tap water. Place the shredded paper in the bin, filling it about half way. Make sure to only use black newsprint, no funny papers or advertising pages. Sprinkle fine sand or coffee grounds on top of the newspaper and add the worms.

Preparing Kitchen Scraps for Your Composting Worms

The worms need to settle in for a while, so don't feed them right away. After about a week, add three to four cups of kitchen scraps. Compost is made from scraps that aren't derived from animals. This means no meat, cheese, fat, bones, or skin. You can use vegetable peelings that are either cooked or raw, coffee grounds, tea bags, and possibly a small amount of fruit. Using too much fruit can attract fruit flies. Prepare the scraps by cutting them into small pieces, the smaller the better. Remember a worm is going to be eating it and your goal is to process these scraps into compost quickly, large scraps take longer to eat through.

Feeding Your Compost Worms

Add scraps to the top of the compost bin every few days for the first three weeks to a month. This will give the worms a chance to multiply and get a good community going. Three to four cups should be enough, and mix in a cup of moist, shredded newspaper with each feeding. After a few weeks, you can start feeding more frequently.

That's it. After a couple of months, you will start to see rich, dark compost. Shine a bright light on the pile to scare the worms to the bottom, and start harvesting by gently moving layers of bedding material aside and scooping up compost. Replace any worms you grab by mistake.

The copyright of the article Start a Vermicomposting Bin in Green/Simple Living is owned by S. Elliott. Permission to republish Start a Vermicomposting Bin in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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