Getting Worms Can Help Humans Heal Planet

Big Island Now stock photo.

When can being a pet owner also help a person reduce his or her impact on the environment?

When those pets are worms. They are quiet, they live in a bin, they don’t smell, and they eat your garbage.

Recycle Hawai’i, a 501(3)(c) nonprofit dedicated to reducing waste since 1992, will collaborate with Hawai’i Public Library to present a series of workshops centered on concepts of sustainability.

Worms Eat My Garbage! A Vermicompost Workshop will be held at Hilo Public Library on Jan. 28 at 5 p.m.

Food waste accounts for 14% of methane emissions in the US, the third largest source of such pollution — and that doesn’t include transportation to the landfill. By mass, food waste and organics dominate municipal landfilling. However, in every backyard little worms are ready to sequester those greenhouse gasses back into powerful soil.

These worms are ready for adoption and hungry for kitchen scraps. Each composting worm will eat half of its own body weight every day.

Attendees will learn how to house, feed and care for their worms with hands-on activities. Worm bins can be kept on the lanai, under the table or in the filing cabinet. They are small, live in a bucket and don’t emit an odor.

Vermicomposting makes it possible to recycle food waste at home and in small spaces. Even apartment dwellers can stop waste and save the world, with a little help.

Learn more about Recycle Hawai’i’s programs and check the recycling directory at www.recyclehawaii.org.