8/16/2006

Waikato Times

For Waikato University student Nick Shannon, the worm has well and truly turned.

For his Master of Science thesis, Mr. Shannon is investigating how the humble earthworm deals with pulp mill waste.
One of the waste products of the pulping process is resin acid, which is normally put into landfills.

However, a study by Landcare scientists has confirmed that worms can effectively reduce the amount of resin acid in the waste.

Mr. Shannon's goal is to figure out how the worms do it, with an eye to finding an environmentally sound way of accelerating the breakdown of the acids in the landfills and converting the waste into useful soil.

"We're not sure whether worms help the breakdown by aerating the soil, whether there is some kind of organism in their gut that does the job, or if they just accumulate the chemical in their tissue," he said.

These are some of the questions he hopes to answer in his thesis.

"This is a very simple idea that is worth exploring, because simple solutions are often the best."

Worms are commonly used in many parts of the world to break down organic waste.

Mr. Shannon, who grew up on a farm near Tirau, is working in Rotorua at Crown Research Institute Scion and will soon be taking delivery of a shipment of earthworms from Christchurch which he will use in a laboratory experiment before unleashing them in field trials.