As the Worm Turns

The solution to efficient composting in an apartment might be a new housepet — actually, a few new housepets. Worms are nature’s composters, and the most effective way to compost might be by keeping them in your home.

Composting is one of the most impactful individual actions a person can take to better our climate. Each year, carbon emissions from US food waste equal the emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants, according to the EPA; not to mention that food waste is responsible for 20% of all methane emissions, which has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. Composting can reduce these statistics: it cuts food waste carbon emissions in half and can almost entirely prevent methane emissions.

Composting can be easy for those with backyards or large gardens. There’s no real worry about space or smell: you can gather nitrogen-rich food scraps with carbon-rich materials like twigs or cardboard and put them in a large compost bin. Soon enough, you’ll have nutritious fertilizer for your soil and plants.

For those who live in apartments, however, composting can be hard. If your city offers curbside compost, it may be as simple as bringing out your food scraps like you bring out the trash. Municipal composting programs, however, aren't always widespread, and some make it difficult to buy back the actual fertilizer. (Quite a few Bluedotters love their Lomi countertop composters but they aren’t cheap.) 

So what do you do if you want to compost in your apartment, cheaply and easily, and you want to reap the benefits of your own food scraps? One of your best options is vermicomposting, or composting with worms.

What is Vermicomposting?

Vermicomposting is simple: with the right wormhouse, a proper diet and a little TLC, worms produce castings that can be used as fertilizer for plants.

Vermicomposting can be done indoors or outdoors. An outdoor worm farm has no spatial limitations and requires less maintenance, but indoor vermicomposting is easy, too. If done right, it’s a cost-effective and efficient way to compost even if you live in an apartment. Plus, the product can make an outstanding difference to the health of your plants. 

Environmentalist Lauren Ferree Bash, who shares content about living sustainably on her Instagram account, says of worm castings: “It’s literally called ‘black gold.’ … I swear your plants will grow 10 times their size or their fruitfulness or their richness in taste if you’re growing fruits or vegetables [nourished with worm castings].”

Ferree Bash has had an outdoor worm farm for around a year now, but she just recently added an indoor worm farm as well, in order to learn more about how it works so she can offer advice to her friends and followers who live in apartments. There were a few hiccups, she said, like figuring out how to best prepare food scraps and prevent any unwanted odors — but with patience and effort, she made progress: “I find vermicomposting extremely effective and humbling,” she said.

How to Vermicompost Inside

What you need to start a worm farm is a wormhouse, bedding, food scraps, and, of course, worms. You can get all of these (except the food scraps) in a package online, which might include other helpful tools like a rake or a blanket to cover your worms. Ferree Bash got her wormhouse from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm, which she called a “one stop shop” for vermicomposting needs and questions.

You can also build your own wormhouse with a large bin or two, which is easy and cost-effective.

Consider also where you’ll keep your wormhouse. “Step one is finding your space,” Ferree Bash said. Worms prefer the dark, so “I would probably find a dark cupboard or closet or under a sink,” she said. “Not near a window and not near a ton of sound.” To avoid any odors, don’t overfeed your worms. 

Now, start prepping for your new pets. Bedding keeps your worms comfortable and healthy, providing space for them to burrow around and initial nutrients for them to feed on. There are a variety of different options, including shredded brown cardboard, shredded paper, and coconut coir.

After laying down your bedding, add your worms. Compost worms are typically red wigglers. Put them in your bin and then cover them — if you don’t buy a worm blanket, any old cotton t-shirt or piece of cardboard will do. This insulates the farm, and will break down as the worms nibble away.

Let the worms settle in before you begin feeding them. “Let them do their thing for one to two days,” Ferree Bash said. “There’s plenty of moisture in there for them to stay hydrated. Then you start feeding them, little by little.” 

Feeding also comes with a few rules:

• don’t overfeed. Stick to once or twice a week. Start by feeding them roughly half their weight in food — so a pound of worms gets a half-pound of food scraps. Work up to an even ratio of worm weight to food weight. But err on the side of less. Overfeeding is the main cause of odor.
• know the right and wrong foods. No animal products or citrus. Start with coffee grounds and biodegradable tea bags. Eventually work in fruit peels and vegetables. Remember to break down the food: Worms will be happier and the food will be devoured quicker if you chop it into small pieces or put it in a blender first. 
• add nitrogen-filled “greens” and carbon-filled “browns”. Ferree Bash said it’s important to have a good balance: “The rule is 50% nitrogen, which is food scraps, and 50% carbon, so I used the brown paper that comes in packages,” she said. Ferree Bash puts paper through a shredder before adding it to her wormhouse — she said her worms loved the consistency. 

For maintenance, you’ll want to regulate temperature and moisture and be sure to harvest castings when they’re ready. Occasionally rake the compost to allow oxygen to help break down the matter. “The trick to any compost is it needs to be aerated,” Ferree Bash said.

If you’re ready to try vermicomposting, you’re not alone — there’s a large community of worm farmers ready to help. As a newbie, Ferree Bash relied on that community for advice. “When you’re learning about something, it’s always nice to find a community online so you can learn from more experts,” she said.