Vermicomposting
EPA data from 2018 shows a steady rise over five decades in total Municipal Solid Waste generation at the household level in the United States. This waste can be largely sorted into three categories: that which can be composted, recycled, or must be landfilled. Compostable materials are biodegradable, made from natural materials, and returning once again to the soil at the end of their useful life. Recyclable materials can be reclaimed as raw materials. Landfilled wastes have no economic or technical recycling solution, but are more often than not an inseparable combination of theoretically compostable or recyclable materials. Think of a plastic-coated paper coffee cup, or 50/50 cotton/polyester blend shirt.
A closer look at this same 2018 EPA study reveals that, of all the categories listed, it’s feasible to compost up to 63% of domestic municipal solid waste:
Paper/Paperboard: 23% Plastics - 12%
Food Waste: 22% Rubber/Leather - 3%
Yard Trimmings: 12% Textiles - 6%
Wood - 6% Misc inorganic - 1.5%
Glass - 4% Other - 1.5%
Metals - 9%
This is the first thing students learn when starting out in the Jounce High After school environmental studies program. We do this because it’s a sincere and compelling way to demonstrate that students have agency to make direct and immediate positive impacts on their environment by transforming their household waste into useful, and sometimes profitable products.
Vermicomposting is a controlled process that often employs a select species of worms known as red wigglers to process organic wastes into rich natural fertilizer. It’s by far one of the easiest and safest options for at-home composting. Vermicomposting systems, or ‘worm bins’ are especially adept at converting cardboard, paper, leaves, and most pre-consumer food wastes; they’re cheap to build, simple to maintain, and surprisingly productive. For these reasons it’s been a favorite first-project for incoming Jounce students.
Students making their own personal worm bins
An effective worm bin will maintain the conditions that red wigglers need to thrive: moderately warm, moist but not too wet, consistently fed and supplied with lots of carbon-rich bedding to crawl around in, and pH-balanced with a good amount of air exchange. A healthy worm bin won’t stink, and food wastes are digested so fast that rodents are rarely a problem.
Jounce students started learning to build simple worm bins from plastic storage containers, but quickly scaled up to a continuous-flow design, where food wastes and bedding are continuously added to the top layer, and rich castings can be harvested from below without disrupting the worm's habitat. These systems are incredibly productive: worms can reproduce at a rapid pace, digesting more food and becoming more productive over time. The worms themselves are valuable for fishing bait, but are more valuable as starter colonies for new bins. It’s the castings themselves that are most valuable as a premium organic fertilizer, rich in nutrients, humic substances and healthy microbes that help cycle nutrients in the garden. Our Jounce high worm bin produces an average of 3 gallons of worm castings per week. This is by no exaggeration some of the best fertilizer on the planet, produced from municipal solid waste with very little effort.
Continuous Flow Worm Bin at Haywood Community College
Soon, Jounce High students will begin the creative process of packaging and marketing worm castings to the public. For now, we use them regularly in our community gardens at First United Methodist church, Haywood Community College and Lake Junaluska.