Go Get Your Worm Box

By David Hunt

When she makes a presentation to a roomful of school kids, Rhonda Sherman has everyone’s rapt attention. “It’s so quiet, you could hear a pin drop,” she says. It’s no wonder. Her topic is the Eisenia fetida. No, that’s not a rare flesh-eating bacterium, but you’re on the right track. It’s a common earthworm – and it wants to eat your garbage.

Sherman is an extension solid waste specialist at NC State. She’s also, it turns out, one of the world’s foremost experts on vermicomposting, the increasingly popular practice of using a container of worms to turn household food waste and used paper into a kind of remarkably rich fertilizer.

“It seems like everybody is into vermicomposting,” she declares with evangelistic zeal.

To prove it, Sherman has agreed to conduct a one-hour webinar – a seminar over the Internet – to explain the care and feeding of the worms and the simple steps you’ll need to follow to become a successful vermicomposter. The webinar is being co-sponsored by NC State’s Office of Sustainability and NC Project Green, a division of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1.

To register, visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/415740585.

If you grow any plants at all, such as herbs, vegetables and flowers, you’ll want to set aside your lunch hour to take part in the webinar. The end product of vermicomposting – Sherman calls it a “soil amendment” – will help you grow healthier, bigger and more abundant plants. Your garden will be the envy of your neighbors, which is reason enough to jump on the vermicomposting bandwagon.

“Seedlings will emerge more quickly and plants will be healthier and grow quicker and they’ll have more well-developed root systems,” Sherman says. “It improves soil structure and texture, porosity, water holding capacity, and prevents erosion.”

Vermicompost adds humus to the soil, which helps with water retention. That’s important in a region known for its hard red clay, especially during a drought.

But there’s another, more environmentally responsible reason for becoming a vermicomposter. It reduces the amount of waste that gets carted off to landfills.
worm box
The “worm box” in Sherman’s office doesn’t hold worms. It’s filled with letters from happy school kids who have heard her speak about worms and composting.”We learned how to make a worm bed,” one class wrote.

Sherman, who holds a master’s degree in environmental and resources analysis with a concentration on solid waste management, says the collection and disposal of garbage is a major contributor to global climate change.

“Food waste in landfills is creating methane, which leads to global warming,” she says. “In fact, the No. 1 source of methane from human activity is landfills.”

When you take into account the exhaust generated by waste collection trucks slowly driving around every neighborhood in America, you begin to see the larger impact on the environment from all the garbage we generate. At her own home, Sherman has become so efficient in her sustainability efforts that she only has to set out her trash bin every eight weeks.

Add up all the benefits from vermicomposting, she says, and it’s no wonder so many people are interested in the process.

“With all this talk of climate change, people are more aware that they need to preserve the earth’s resources,” she says. “People are connecting the dots between their own activities and the health of the planet.”