By Daily Press staff
In an effort to reduce waste, generate a source of organic fertilizer and launch an unusual community education project, Santa Monica College is turning to worms.
SMC will officially launch today its vermicomposting project, a process that uses worms to eat up as much as 150 pounds of food waste each day that yields a clean and odorless organic fertilizer. The college already has installed a Vermitech machine, the second of its kind in California and one of just a handful in the entire country. Three hundred pounds of worms are eating the food waste.
The project is being closely watched by city officials of Santa Monica, a municipality known for its commitment to recycling. The city provided $25,000 — half of the cost — of the machine, with a matching $25,000 coming from Ann Petersen, representing the Esper A. Petersen Foundation. The donation was made through the SMC Foundation.
SMC is investing about $10,000 for an awning and electrical connection system, and college employees and student workers will operate the composting project, said Tom Corpus, grounds and landscape supervisor.
Fully automated and temperature-controlled, the Vermitech machine shreds food waste (and discarded paper towels) and dumps it into the mass of worms, which eat it. The worms’ droppings fall underneath the machine and are collected for use as an organic fertilizer and even as a pest control substance.
Currently, the college recycles about 37 percent of its waste, primarily paper and cardboard, beverage containers, green waste, and construction and demolition material. This will be its first venture to recycle food waste, which accounts for about 7 percent of the campus’ overall waste.
The first Vermitech machine, developed by Canadian entrepreneur Al Eggen, was installed in Toronto Metropolitan City Hall in 1994. Since then, 10 machines have been installed at schools, universities, military bases and hospitals in the United States, Canada and Europe.
Santa Monica city officials say they might seek to duplicate the college’s efforts at such places as the Third Street Promenade, the site of many restaurants that generate food waste.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 10, 2001. Read the original PDF.