The Recycle for Cornwall campaign has been developed to raise public awareness of recycling and to provide consumers with a compelling reason to recycle.
Wormeries are ideal for those who don’t have room for a compost bin or who don’t have a garden but would like to recycle their kitchen waste. Wormeries are compact, self contained and unlike a compost bin come with the worms provided!
Wormeries make use of tiger worms which are a breed that live in decaying matter. They differ from a normal garden earth worm which live deeper in the ground and are soil dwellers. Normal earth worms would not survive in a wormery.
The tiger worms digest the kitchen waste you put into the wormery and produce “casts” which can be harvested as nutrient rich worm compost. A liquid is also produced which can be drained off and used as a plant feed. Often wormeries are designed with several levels and a tap to make it easy to access the worm compost and plant feed, without disturbing the worms.
The worms can eat up to half their body weight in one day and will breed to ensure your wormery is always working at its most efficient; they will also self-regulate their population size so you will not end up with too many worms!
The worms will digest any organic waste but are ideal for breaking down kitchen waste. Woody garden waste will take a long time to digest and therefore will slow down the process in your wormery. Meat, dairy, fish, bones, cooked and uncooked scraps can all be added to the wormery but sometimes you may need to monitor the amounts to ensure the worms are coping! Some kitchen scraps such as onions, leeks or citrus fruits should be cooked before being added to the wormery as their acidity can affect the worms. It is also a good idea to give the worms some shredded cardboard or paper to maintain a balanced diet!
Wormeries are easy to use but do take some monitoring in the beginning stages to get it right. You should make sure the wormery is situated somewhere well ventilated and convenient to use but also check that it is not in direct sunlight or that it will get too cold; you may need to move it into a shed or garage during the winter. Finally, it is important to drain off the excess liquid so that your worms do not drown!
Wormeries are ideal for those who don’t have room for a compost bin or who don’t have a garden but would like to recycle their kitchen waste. Wormeries are compact, self contained and unlike a compost bin come with the worms provided!
The worms can eat up to half their body weight in one day and will breed to ensure your wormery is always working at its most efficient; they will also self-regulate their population size so you will not end up with too many worms!
