Worms + garbage = green success (CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

(CNN) -- Add heaps of red worms to mountains of raw, rotting garbage. Then collect the worms' feces, brew it into a liquid, and squeeze it into a used soda bottle.

Sound like a twisted fourth-grade boy's concoction for messing with his sister? Not quite. Rather, it is TerraCycle's formula for success in the growing, if messy, organic fertilizer business.

Sales of organic products, especially food, have surged of late. But the National Gardening Association estimates just 5 percent of the $8.5 billion U.S. fertilizer and insecticide industry is all-natural, with uncertainty about what "organic" means muddying the picture, according to experts.

"Everybody and his cousin wants to go green these days, and in my view, it's about time," said gardening association research director Bruce Butterfield, citing a national survey conducted by Harris Interactive for his group. The study found surging interest in organic gardening out of sync with actual use of all-natural fertilizers. "If I had to grade homeowners on how environmentally responsible they are , they failed."

That may be changing, with market researchers Freedonia Group estimating 10 percent annual growth for the organic fertilizer market, twice the projected growth for all lawn and garden goods.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/01/organic.fertilizer/index.html

[Shallah Kali]

1. People are already doing this at home - link: Cheap and Easy Worm Bin

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

Composting With Red Wiggler Worms
http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html

for more info google "worm bin" or vermicomposting

[kestrel91316]

2. It's too hot here to do vermicomposting in a bin. 119 degrees last summer.

They can't survive it. They won't even go to work in a compost pile in the summer, can't keep them moist enough to stay cool..........

Maybe in a more temperate climate.......