Composting Critters

6/1/2004

Waste Age

By Erin Spinka and Wendy Angel

Jennie Rylee, solid waste coordinator for Boise, Idaho, is worming her way through her city's waste - literally. To cut down city garbage, she has set up a vermicomposting container in her office, where city employees drop off about a pound of food waste each day. After three months of feeding the red wrigglers such items as banana peels, lettuce, tea bags, coffee grounds and egg shells, Rylee rewards her co-workers with a heap of worm casing compost, which can be used in gardens as fertilizer or as a top dressing for house plants. Rylee has been dubbed the "worm wrangler" but there's no word yet on the worms unionizing to get on the city's payroll.

Source: The Idaho Statesman