Worms go to work on waste

Worms will be used to break down waste into organic materials

More than 18 million earthworms are being drafted to Monmouthshire to convert thousands of tonnes of household compost waste into organic material.

Wormtech Limited currently collects waste for recycling throughout the county as part of the kerbside scheme.

But now the firm wants to use worms to break down the waste and produce organic fertiliser and other products.

Work is currently taking place to convert five large hangars in Caerwent into the worm factories.

"We started the kerbside collections in June last year," explained Graham Owen, from Wormtech.

The composting takes place first and then we bring in the worms and let them do their stuff Graham Owen, Wormtech

"We collect from 30,000 homes from across the county and up until now the compostable waste has been taken for on-site farm composting.

"But we have decided to try to compost it ourselves with the help of the worms so we can produce organic fertiliser and other products.

"We are currently in the process of converting five large hangars at a site in Caerwent into composting facilities.

"It is a two-stage process; the composting takes place first, which is about three months, and then we bring in the worms and let them do their stuff.

"They will spend the next month or so breaking it all down and will leave us with the material to make 12 different organic products like potting compost."

Worm extractor

Mr Owen is planning to bring in 30 tonnes of worms to process the waste into the organic produce and said that around 20 jobs would be created with the scheme, which is taking place in partnership with Monmouthshire Council.

Earthworms are known as the gardener's friend because they feed on decaying organic matter in the soil.

They excrete digested material as worm casts and these can be seen as squiggly clumps of mud at the surface of the soil.

"There are about 700 worm farms throughout the UK and we will getting our worms from them with a plan to breed our own soon," Mr Owen said.

"And we'll make sure no worms get into the final products with a special worm picking machine which removes them safely."

The firm is still constructing the worm factories but hopes they will be ready by the end of May.