UK: ‘An easy solution for our waste’: DIY worm farming hits UK homes
Social enterprise wins grant to send out composting worms that can turn waste into high-grade fertiliser
By Amelia Hill
The Guardian
Sun 9 Jan 2022
Excerpt:
A Nottingham-based initiative, the Urban Worm Community Interest Company (UWC), is on a mission to “worm up” the UK by kickstarting an urban worm farming movement that can create high-grade fertiliser from banana skins and old socks.
The social enterprise has received a £50,000 grant from the national lottery to send out 1,000 packs of composting worms – known as tiger worms because of their red skin – to anybody with a DIY worm farm ready to house a population of 100.
“Using worms to manage organic household waste is happening at scale all over the world, except in the UK,” said Anna de la Vega, UWC’s managing director. “The reality of climate change, natural resource depletion and mass urbanisation presents unprecedented threats to global food security and the survival of humanity.”
As far as natural waste managers and fertiliser-producers go, worms are unmatchable: they can eat up to half their body weight in organic waste a day and reduce the volume of that waste by 90% in two to six months.
