Composting Operations

Wynand

Friday October 30, 2009 at 7:51:27 AM

Best Piet, ek wil jou graag bedank vir al die moeite wat jy gedoen het na aanleiding van my navraag Maandag middag. Dit is raar om nog iemand te kry wat so bereidwillig is om 'n ander persoon te help sonder om eers twee keer te dink. Baie Dankie!

Stanley

Sunday November 01, 2009 at 11:58:39 PM

I am starting an earthworm farm to recycle our restaurant kitchen waste, but I am concerned about the meat scraps and trimmed fat. I have read that meat and fat should be kept out of the earthworm bins.

My questions are :
1) Can it be included and fed to my earthworms?
2) If not, what do I do with it other than just throw it away?

Piet Kruger (Convertech)

Monday November 02, 2009 at 4:34:53 AM

Stanley,
Small-scale vermi-composting operations such as the one that you are setting up is a brilliant way to recycle food scraps that will otherwise just end up generating methane on a city dump.

Answering your two questions,
1) Can it be included and fed to my earthworms?
No, do not include meat or fat into any substrate that will be used for vermi-composting purposes. You could process the meat and fat with a tissue digestor and then apply the effluent in metered dosages to the rest of the food scraps, but on such a small scale this would not be financially feasible.

2) If not, what do I do with it other than just throw it away?

If these food scraps are fit for human consumption, consider calling a hospice or a soup kitchen where meat is always in desperately short supply.Your waste could just be turned into a wholesome meal for somebody that really needs it.

If not fit for human consumption, contact a local animal shelter and find out if they can use it as part of their feeding regime for their animals.

Finally, you could consider setting up a small specialized composting bin that could be used to compost away the meat and fat, whereafter the compost could be mixed into the substrate for your earthworms. Be aware that this option could generate a lot of hassles and odours if done incorrectly, so speak to us before you consider this option.
Hope this helps.