Apartment Composting 101: Vermicompost with Barb Finnin | Easy Home Recycling

Apartment Composting 101: Vermicompost with Barb Finnin

UPDATE:

We have modified this original design to a shallower, more airy worm bin. Check out our new design here, http://ryanishungry.com/2007/09/14/vermicomposting-born-again-worm-bin/ Cheers! Good Luck!
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Barb Finnin is part of the amazing Freshtopia team. She’s a certified master composter- her specialty is Vermicomposting with worms. We were super excited to learn that we could compost in our city apartment with a homemade worm bin even though we don’t have a yard. Throwing food scraps away in the garbage is not something either of us enjoys, so having a green alternative has been more than satisfying for our sustainability goals. After 4 weeks, our worms are happy and thriving.

Find out more about Vermicomposting and other forms of composting on Wikipedia. Visit Barb at Freshtopia.net.

Runtime- 9:47

Duration : 0:9:48




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25 Responses

  1. ericn9vjg Says:

    I heard that …
    I heard that composting grains is not recommended. Not sure why or why not. Just wondering about your opinion.

  2. futurhumen Says:

    @greencatmusic …
    @greencatmusic actually most newspapers and flyers are printed using soybased ink, conventional ink is becoming to expensive

  3. MonyMG1959 Says:

    What a great idea.. …
    What a great idea…They should use things like this in cities like Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where there are many apartments and the trash can became a problem

  4. kickstartsearch Says:

    Great vid. i got a …
    Great vid. i got a pre-fab system for this from tierrapath

  5. pasychosheep Says:

    Also, PCBs …
    Also, PCBs shouldn’t be leaching on the inside of the bucket unless you keep your bin out in the sunlight. Plastic photodegrades.

  6. pasychosheep Says:

    For everyone …
    For everyone concerned about inks in paper, the vast majority of newspapers in the world(america, especially) use soy based inks. Perfectly safe.

  7. anirola7 Says:

    Nice video!!!
    I …

    Nice video!!!
    I only recommend to look for a better tray. I think that the compost inside the bin is going to drain all the tea worm once the process has evolved. That is a very precious organic fertilizer too.
    And I don´t recommend to have the vermicompost bin in your kitchen for sanitation reasons.

  8. fetymann Says:

    You can’t deny the …
    You can’t deny the stuff in the paper HAS to be some funky stuff. There’s probably a problem that you might not be noticing. Ever wonder how your worms like the ‘taste’ of the funky inks and whatever the heck that stuff is made of. It can’t be good. I don’t even think we would feel that good eating that stuff. Not to mention it’s probably safe to assume that the inks don’t get fully broken down in their digestion so it’ll still be in the castings. Ink residues in your veggies. Yum!

  9. radicalford Says:

    you can use color …
    you can use color but don’t use the glossy ones

  10. greencatmusic Says:

    I also wondered …
    I also wondered about pcbs from the plastic if it’s not food grade plastic …

  11. greencatmusic Says:

    Is straw better tha …
    Is straw better tha n printed paper? It seems really unorganic to use printed paper that must have loads of toxins in it if you want real organic compost for plants? That said… how fantastic this is for people without gardens! Thanks for posting this excellent and very helpful video x

  12. stonerj0e Says:

    don’t use color ink …
    don’t use color ink news paper. it contains high levels of heavy metals and other nasties …

  13. 9aspengold5 Says:

    there are only two …
    there are only two of us making ‘trash’. I was amazed at how much compost material we made just ourselves. I sure hope more people start composting and worm composting. It will be awesome how much space we can save in landfills.

  14. 9aspengold5 Says:

    Thank you for the …
    Thank you for the response. I have shredded up my paper and added it to the compost. Lets hope they like it !!!!

  15. HTCSWEOD Says:

    Very nicely done.. …
    Very nicely done.. lots of great advise… this is a great recycling activity

  16. RyanIsHungry Says:

    there are differing …
    there are differing opinions on this. i have never had a problem with colored print paper and my worms.

  17. 9aspengold5 Says:

    I noticed you used …
    I noticed you used newspaper that had color print. I thought that you should only use the black and white pages and not the color print. Is that true???

  18. IndiaHavenwick2 Says:

    Oh, by the way, the …
    Oh, by the way, the video is great. Thank you for posting it! Worms are little wonder workers!

  19. sweetheart4890 Says:

    i luv this vid more …
    i luv this vid more than any of the others i’ve seen. it’s way more hands on and step by step and more detailed. and more understandable. thank you so much. im definately spreading the word about this and going to try to get anyone i know doing this.

  20. staceyannec Says:

    thank you so much …
    thank you so much for putting this up. As soon as I move out im so doing this!!

  21. Mrwthompson Says:

    Future science …
    Future science project for my 8th grade students. Thanks for the help Barb!

    -Mr. T

  22. Mechman064 Says:

    Part of my …
    Part of my preparations for peak oil and the looming economic depression has been to make a deck garden here at my condo(see my videos). I used powdered organic fertilizer to get things started but I think my next step is to begin composting. Making a worm bin seems like a very good solution.

  23. mmajkla Says:

    Nice video and very …
    Nice video and very informative. I will start soon!

  24. Speezerina Says:

    This is really …
    This is really great. But how do you harvest the castings?
    Thanks for the great how-to. :-)

  25. crock703 Says:

    Anyone know if …
    Anyone know if there is an easy way to get red worms for free (or the cost of shipping)?