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I call this story “How to Successfully Undermine Good Ideas” thanks to a recent article written over at LiveScience.com entitled “Top 10 Craziest Environmental Ideas.” And, in short, several of their “zany ideas” are possible chances for survival.

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I’ll admit it, I was one of those little kids who patrolled gutters during rainstorms to save drowning worms. All these years later, I have a new appreciation for them. Honestly, what’s not to love about critters that reduce global warming, help you garden, and will eat most things that you toss their way? As pets, they may not be much to look at, and they’re decidedly bad at playing fetch. But compare them with other kinds of pets and you’ll see that they do hold a certain charm. For instance, they’ll never defile your furniture or your leg, they’re good with kids, and they’ll circulate your kitchen scraps back into the garden faster than you can say "vermicomposting."

Vermicomposting, also called vermiculture, is a method of home composting in which "red wiggler worms" quickly digest yard waste and kitchen scraps. Perhaps the most ingenious use of vermicomposting I’ve ever come across was in a Santa Barbara, California, elementary school. Over the course of her career, a teacher at the school developed a program in which the students would vermicompost scraps from their school lunches. They would then use the compost in the schools sunflower and vegetable garden. Students also kept a journal of the gardening project. Food from the garden was used in the school lunches, and the lunch scraps were then composted once again. Students sold excess garden goods at a farmer’s market. Cleverly, this gave students the chance to practice writing, journalism, math at the market, biology, and a host of other subjects—all while playing with worms. Now that’s a great reason to love worms. But it’s just a start.

Believe it or not, your little buddies in the dirt can help to reduce global warming by composting your food scraps. According to a study by the University of Arizona Garbage Project, Americans toss out as much as 390 million pounds of food every day. As this food decomposes in landfills, it releases global warming methane gas. About a quarter of the methane gas released in the U.S. comes from landfills and roughly 7% of that comes decomposing food, the EPA estimates. Luckily, some of this methane is captured and turned into electrical energy. By starting a home composting bin with worms, you can reduce the food waste that ends up in landfills, which will also help to decrease methane levels in the atmosphere.

Now, let’s imagine that you’ve just finished preparing your favorite vegetarian dish—say, flame-roasted red pepper enchiladas. If you cook like me, chances are that by the time you actually finish what it is you’re preparing, you’ll have a kitchen counter strewn with onion skins, vegetable peels, and forgotten ingredients. What can we do with all our food trimmings and waste? Feed it to the pets? Dogs and cats are carnivores by nature, so offering them this selection may get them wondering why exactly they chose to hang out with us in the first place. But one animal who’ll love every last scrap is our humble friend, the worm. Keeping a worm bin is fun because you can literally watch yesterday’s food scraps and leftovers turn into tomorrow’s rich garden compost.

And what great compost it is! If you like to garden, it’s worth giving worm bins a shot. You’ll have an endless supply of rich, organic fertilizer, produced in your own back yard or even under the sink. No pesticides, no chemical fertilizers, no plastic fertilizer bags and bottles… just pure homegrown plant food.

You can find instructions for building a wooden, outdoor vermicompost bin here, or find instructions for building a plastic indoor or outdoor bin here, courtesy of Seattle Tilth. Especially with autumn rolling in, this is the perfect time to start your compost bin. Red and yellow autumn leaves will be a tastey treat for your worms, and by the time spring appears you’ll have ample compost with which to start your new garden.

References and Resources:

Worm Poop: The Other Black Gold (Video) | Treehugger

Learn to Compost | Seattle Tilth

Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2003 | Department of Energy

Food Waste | Waste Age

Weekly DIY: Build Your Own Worm Composting Bin | Green Options

Photo Source:

Yummy Worms | Flickr

Worm composting is one of those practices that's going to earn you strange looks — mention your "worm bin," and you'll inevitably see a raised eyebrow, often followed by the question "What's a worm bin?"

If you live in an urban or suburban setting, though, using red worms to transform your organic trash (fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, etc.) into usable compost (in this case, worm poop… or "castings") takes us a lot less space than the traditional pile or bin, and will likely keep your neighbors happier.

While a number of worm bins are available for sale, I found that it was much cheaper to make my own. After digging around online, I found a great plan at the Whatcom County (Washington) Agriculture site.

So let's build a worm bin!

What You Need:

• Two 8-10 gallon plastic storage boxes (dark, not see-through). I took a trip to Target and picked up two Rubbermaid containers with lids. Don't remember the price offhand, but very reasonable.
• A drill with 1/4" and 1/16" bits
• Shredded newspaper (for bedding)
• A pound of redworms. You can order these online, but I went to the local bait shop.

Make Your Worm Bin

From the Whatcom County site:

1. Drill about twenty evenly spaced 1/4 inch holes in the bottom of each bin. These holes will provide drainage and allow the worms to crawl into the second bin when you are ready to harvest the castings.
2. Drill ventilation holes about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart on each side of the bin near the top edge using the 1/16 inch bit. Also drill about 30 small holes in the top of one of the lids.
3. Prepare bedding for the worms by shredding Newspaper into 1 inch strips. Worms need bedding that is moist but not soggy. Moisten the newspaper by soaking it in water and then squeezing out the excess water. Cover the bottom of the bin with 3-4 inches of moist newspaper, fluffed up. If you have any old leaves or leaf litter, that can be added also. Throw in a handful of dirt for "grit" to help the worms digest their food.
4. Add your worms to the bedding. One way to gather redworms, is to put out a large piece of wet cardboard on your lawn or garden at night. The redworms live in the top 3 inches of organic material, and like to come up and feast on the wet cardboard! Lift up cardboard to gather the redworms. For example, if your food waste averages 1/2 lb. per day, you will need 1 lb. of worms or a 2:1 ratio. There are roughly 500 worms in one pound. If you start out with less than one pound, don't worry they multiply very quickly. Just adjust the amount that you feed them for your worm population.
5. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit over the bedding, and get it wet. Then cover the bedding with the Step 5cardboard. (Worms love cardboard, and it breaks down within months.)
6. Place your bin in a well-ventilated area such as a laundry room, garage, balcony, under the kitchen sink, or outside in the shade. Place the bin on Step 6top of blocks or bricks or upside down plastic containers to allow for drainage. You can use the lid of the second bin as a tray to catch any moisture that may drain from the bin. This "worm tea" is a great liquid fertilizer.
7. Feed your worms slowly at first. As the worms multiply, you can begin to add more food. Gently bury the food in a different section of the bin each week, under the cardboard. The worms will follow the food scraps around the bin. Burying the food scraps will help to keep fruit flys away. What do worms like to eat? Feed your worms a vegetarian diet. Most things that would normally go down the garbage disposal can go into your worm bin (see the list below). You will notice that some foods will be eaten faster than others. Worms have their preferences just like us.

The Whatcom County site also has information on what to feed your worms (and what not to), and some troubleshooting tips. For more information on worm composting, you can also visit my Composting with Worms Squidoo lens.