Application to the Sustainability Fund for Vermicomposting Materials

Here is our application to the Sustainability Fund for Vermicomposting materials. Imagine it! We'll have baby worms to take care! PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS IF YOU HAVE SOME IDEAS! I am new to vermicomposting and don't know a whole lot :)

Vermicomposting at Oxy

FEAST would like to expand our composting operations to include a worm compost program in addition to the “snake” compost we already maintain.

Vermicomposting has clear ecological benefits—we could use a lot more food prep waste from the marketplace (currently we are only using a small fraction of what they produce everyday) therefore eliminating the need to truck that waste to a dump. Instead we would use those nutrients by recycling them back into the earth, enriching our garden and reducing our carbon footprint. We have always planned to have multiple types of compost and worms are a good place to start our expansion as they are easy to maintain, essentially odorless and can serve as an educational tool for students and community members who are interested in composting at home as vermicompost is the best kind for a regular backyard—minimal work, absorbs as little or as much food-prep waste as you need it to, odorless and GREAT for the garden. It can even be left for up to a month with no tending without severe repercussions.

I built a vermicomposting site at my house over winter break. It took about 1 hour to put together and one only needs to put more food-prep waste in it to keep the worms alive. Expanding to this type of compost would be easy for FEAST. All we need to do is provide the Marketplace with more bins and they could give us a few more every week to feed the worms. The upkeep is much easier than the upkeep for the pile we currently have and would be a great addition to our weekly meetings.

Budget-- $224

$150—This is the price of a Can-of –Worms composter—it has six trays that the worms worm their way into. The bottom layer has a spigot to drain the extra liquid (which is great to put on your garden). The first tray is a “working tray” as are the next four after that. Once the worms are out of the first tray (and into the second), you empty the contents of the first tray into the garden and put it on top. The trays just keep rotating. The typical life-span for this type of compost is 15 years.

$59—This is the price of 2 lbs of red manure worms, which we will need to start the program. They double in popuation every two months and are self-sustaining so we will never need to buy more.

$15—This is for the coconut foil we need to buy as bedding for the worms when they first arrive.

All of these items can be found on abundantearth.com, a great resource for learning about vermicomposting and buying vermicomposting related products.