Vermicomposting
By Katherine Kim
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In 2023, 1.3 billion tons of food waste were produced globally, generating almost 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. So, a clean, sustainable, and zero-waste approach was created, vermicomposting. Vermicomposting is a technique that involves using earthworms to produce organic, nutrient-rich manure. Large-scale vermicomposting is practiced in many countries such as Canada, Italy, Japan, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the United States. The vermicompost may be used for farming, landscaping, to create compost tea, or for sale. Some of these operations produce worms for bait and/or home vermicomposting.
According to ScienceDirect, vermicomposting is a natural process in which earthworms convert waste material with rigid structures into compost. The compost produced in this process is traditionally used as a natural fertilizer to enhance plant growth. Vermicomposting and traditional composting have widely different characteristics—conventional composting is a thermophilic process breaking down compost at high temperatures, which explains why worms would not be used in this process. As food is softened by moisture or by other microorganisms, worms play a bigger role by further breaking down food in their gizzards. Worm gizzards contain hard particles and muscles that grind ingested food.
Vermicomposting can be used in multiple communities to support sustainable agriculture and reduce waste. Schools and community centers can implement vermicomposting to recycle food scraps locally and allow individuals of these communities to participate and observe waste management in a small-scale ecosystem. Vermicomposting is a sustainable way to reduce food waste and can be used to educate others about the effects and benefits of proper waste management.
Vermicomposting has several benefits as it is a sustainable form of composting that lowers the volume of waste thrown away. 496 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gasses in the form of methane are released for every million metric tons of organic wastes that decompose. With traditional composting, the conversion of waste reduces those emissions by more than 50%. However, it was found that vermicomposting lessens emissions in comparison to conventional composting, while also speeding up the decomposition process by 2-5 times.
Works Cited
“Composting.” Project Drawdown, https://drawdown.org/solutions/composting. Accessed 3 November 2024.
Fong, Jen, and Paula Hewitt. “More About Worms... And Related Classroom Activities - Cornell Composting.” CORNELL Composting, https://compost.css.cornell.edu/worms/moreworms.html. Accessed 3 November 2024.
“Impact of Vermicomposting on Greenhouse Gas Emission: A Short Review.” MDPI, https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11306. Accessed 3 November 2024.
“Vermicomposting.” Science Direct, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/vermicomposting.
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