These organisms might be the secret to solving food waste.

With the rapidly deteriorating state of the environment, much attention has been drawn to the main causes of the emissions. With food waste being one of the largest polluting factors, it has gained a lot of traction recently. In fact, annually, 108 billion pounds of food are wasted every year. This food is sent off to the landfills where it is decomposed into deadly greenhouse gases such as methane, which are even more polluting than carbon dioxide. With these rising concerns, there has been no shortage of innovation to fight this issue. One example of this is vermicomposting.

Vermicomposting is the use of earthworms to convert organic waste into fertilizer. There are many benefits to vermicomposting, for example, it decreases pests, and increases nutrients, water content, and overall crop yields. However, by far the biggest benefit is that it indirectly turns poisonous greenhouse gasses into usable soil.

With all these benefits, it seems that vermicomposting should be used more often, right? Well, there are some things to take into account as well, the main one being the time. It takes 2 pounds of red wigglers to recycle 1 pound of organic matter per day. When factoring in the fact that billions of pounds of food are wasted every year, it becomes easy to see why the use of vermicomposting is so limited. Besides the time, there are a few more minor downsides such as a large odor, high maintenance, and possible pathogens.

Furthermore, the situations where vermicomposting can be used are also very limited. These worms have a very restricted diet restricted to certain fruits and vegetables that are not acidic. Most leftover foods such as pizza or hamburgers can’t be processed.

Despite all these negatives, vermicomposting is still of help to the environment. Even if vermicomposting can’t be used for many foods, it can be used in every backyard. After all, we are indirectly converting greenhouse gasses into good fertilizer that will increase the health of your plants.