Hotel Vermicomposting in South Africa
Just read an article in The Seattle Times that I certainly found interesting! Those of you who have been following the blog probably have a sense for how much of a composting fanatic I am by now, so it probably comes as no surprise that that this sort of story would catch my attention!
Earlier this year South Africa’s oldest hotel, the Mount Nelson, started a vermicomposting pilot program in an effort to divert some of its organic waste from the landfill. It’s estimated that they currently employ about 1 million composting worms to help them process large quantities of food waste daily.
It’s widely suggested in worm composting circles that 1 lb of worms is made up of approximately 1000 individuals - in other words, the hotel estimates that they currently have about 1000 lbs of worms! Pretty impressive numbers!
Under favourable conditions it is also suggested that composting worms can eat their own weight (or more) in waste every day, so you can get some sense for the processing potential of a large-scale system (I’m already pretty blown away with the processing speed of my home-scale system).
Apparently the system is able to handle 1/3 of their total organic waste stream, but they’re confident that by next year they’ll be able to divert up to 70%.
Not only do systems like this produce large quantities of incredibly rich compost, but they also help to reduce global methane emissions. Remember that organic wastes sent to the landfill tend to undergo anaerobic degradative processes (as opposed to aerobic composting), which lead to methane production. Methane is many times more potent as a global warming gas than carbon dioxide.
I would love to see this sort of initiative taken by a LOT more businesses! With the right systems in place, I can only imagine how much organic waste could be diverted from the landfills!
Here is the article in case you are interested: Hotel worms its way out of pile of waste
And here is the hotel’s website: Mount Nelson Hotel (sadly, I couldn’t find any info about their worm composting project)
Technorati Tags: compost, composting, worm composting, vermicomposting, hotels, waste-management, organic waste, Mount Nelson hotel, worms
Written by Bentley on October 30th, 2006 with
no comments.
Read more articles on Waste Management and Eco Travel.
- [+] Digg: Feature this article
- [+] Del.icio.us: Bookmark this article
- [+] Furl: Bookmark this article
