LETTER TO THE EDITOR

To the editor:

I'm responding to your challenge by providing a cheap and easy way to divert food waste.

For 15 years, I was a recycling adviser and information officer for the Metro Toronto/Toronto Works Commissioner.

I was one of the first certified master composters in the province and spent the first half of my employment with the works department taking the backyard and community composting programs out to the public. They were both extremely successful.

When I moved here in 2009, I offered to do a worm bin program to a number of staff and representatives of Almaguin townships.

It's cheap, easy to carry out and could provide extra cash to kids, seniors or other residents who wish to sell the red worms the bins create. There were no takers, even from the landfills. For a very inexpensive waste reduction technique.

So bear with me — I'm going to give you a flash course. Go to the Home Hardware and buy a medium-sized Roughneck Tote storage bin, a boot mat and, if you don't have one, a quarter-inch drill bit. Drill holes along the lowest part of the tote, about two inches apart, two inches down from the top on the long sides, and a few on the lid.

Take some newspaper and rip it in half, again and again until you have strips. Put about two to three inches of the strips in the bottom of the tote. Dampen the paper.

Add some dried and powdered egg shells to the paper. Put a couple of bricks on the mat and the tote on top. This is to help drain and evaporate moisture.

Get some red wiggler worms from under leaves, a friend's compost bin or a bait shop.

Do not buy the $200-apound tropical worms — you want the ones that live in the area. Add a halfpound to a pound of worms to the newspaper in the tote.

Put the lid on — they do go for walks around the inside of the bin at night.

Starting at one corner, add vegetative food waste (not cooked), coffee grounds, tea bags, other food scraps and organic paper and place it under the newspaper.

Move each deposit across the narrow part of the bin in a line, then back along the first until you are at the other end of the tote. You should have finished compost forming at the beginning. Leave it alone until the whole tote is full of compost, flip the contents onto the tray, make little pyramids of compost and gently remove it from the top.

The worms are at the bottom. You may hear a whoosh as they move to get out of the light. Restart the tote again, add the worms and see if any friends want to start their own bins. You will get more worms in the bin as time goes on.

You can put the compost in your garden or on top of potted plants, or make some compost tea to feed your plants. I kept my worm bin in my living room by my couch.

Happy with your results? Try using a larger bin. Outdoor bin? Add some of your extra worms. The Land of Lakes school library has an excellent book on worm composting written by Mary Appelhof — it's a classic.

I haven't seen the pilot project device, but do question whether it is actually producing compost or simply dehydrating food waste.

A worm bin does not need hydro.