Chicago Recycling Coalition's guide
to WORM COMPOSTING
Recycle your food scraps and make great organic fertilizer!
Composting with worms, or vermicomposting, helps to reduce waste going to landfills, creates a great nutrient-rich organic fertilizer, and is much more fun than a using a garbage disposal or trash can! Worm composting is ideal for apartment dwellers because it can be done indoors and does not require much space. Like recycling, composting is a way to divert waste from landfills and turn it into new products. Further, using compost reduces the amount of synthetic fertilizers we add to our soil. This brochure explains how to compost with worms at home. After setting up a bin, simply add your food waste and let the worms turn it into compost. It's easy, produces no offensive odors, and helps plants thrive. Enjoy!Setting up a Compost Bin
To make your own worm-composting bin you can use a rubber storage bin, a used shipping crate, a washtub, or an old drawer. The size of your bin depends on the amount of food waste you want to compost. For two people (assuming they produce about 3.5 lbs of food waste per week) a bin should be about 3 square feet. Because worms are surface feeders, worm bins can be shallow but need to be at least 5 inches deep. You'll want some kind of a lid to keep unwanted critters out, and holes in the side, top, and bottom of the bin for ventilation and drainage (1/4 inch or smaller). If you are keeping the bin somewhere where the minimal drainage will be a problem, you'll need a tray or absorbent mat to keep things dry.If you're not a do-it-yourselfer, there are numerous sources for buying manufactured worm bins.
Worms like moderate temperatures (between 55 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit). Your bin can be kept in a kitchen, basement, closet, or outdoors in the shade during the summer.
Bedding
Before adding the worms or your food waste, you'll need to add bedding for the worms to live and work in. A readily available material is shredded newspaper. Make sure to only use paper with black ink; color ink may contain toxins that can kill worms. Tear newspaper sheets into strips 1 inch wide or thinner, or use a paper shredder. Soak the strips in water and wring them out to the consistency of a wet sponge before placing in the bin. Fluff the strips so that none are matted together, and fill your bin no more than 12 inches high with bedding. Toss in two handfuls of soil from outdoors, this provides grit which aids in the worm's digestive processes. Then you are ready to add the worms. Over time the bedding will be eaten by the worms along with the food.
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