Uh, well . . . A worm bin smells better than a compost bin.

Patrick:
w/o the intention of hurting anybody's feeling I would say the comparison of worm composting versus backyard composting is like having a Hamburger at Red Robin's versus MacDonald's.
Otis

Patrick,
Unless you live in warm climates, you can't compost outdoors year-round. This alone, is the advantage many of us like, to using the worms.

The worms compost faster than hot-composting. It takes time, and a lot of worms to process all the food of the average family, but it can be done. A lot of people do both kinds of composting, where the hot-compost can handle all the yard waste and things that don't go into worm bins.

Even those like myself who live in an apartment, or who just don't want to bother with the turning and layering of the proper browns and greens to get the compost to heat up, vermi is the only way to go. And we're certainly doing our part to cut down the waste going to the landfill.

To answer your question in terms of efficiency...

"If my only concern is the reduction of kitchen garbage into the waste stream" and nothing else, I would get a BioPod and use Black Soldier Fly Larvae instead of earthworms.

For the last few years I thought that anything that passes through a worm's gullet is the 'Cadillac' of compost with the perfect balance of nutrients and bacteria. I think that it is much more exciting; like watching paint dry faster!

""I think that it is much more exciting; like watching paint dry faster!""
It's so true Eric.
I know I won't see much difference from 3 or 4 hours ago when I checked the bin but I am still doing it anyway. Hoping to see a sudden increase in worm population? I keep dreaming.
Otis

I live in an apartment and have a rubbermaid container on my lanai! No kitchen waste (or paper/paper product rolls)goes in the dumpster and I give away the black gold to friends that have yards.

My goal is to get the property to allow me to place a pipeline system and convince all the neighbors (only 40 of us) to vermicompost.

Does this pipeline system look pricey to you folks? I know I can build my own. . . I hope! There's a restaurant in time that has their own "pipeline" and it looks like wood, not poly.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pipeline system

Hi wormnelly,
Pipeline is 1.5 foot diameter in 9 feet segments with perforated space dividers slipping into any of the pipe corrugations.
Worms are a cheap date & that off the shelf price is high for any herd of garbage junkies.
Get an affordable diameter pressure rated PVC pipe. If your volume of area is proportionally less than the 1.5 diameter & trough length it just means you process that factor less of daily waste (than the Pipeline design does).
Saw it's +/-20 foot length in 1/2 & you get 2 +/- 9 ft. pieces once you trim off the bell end of the pipe (optional), any saw will work - even a hacksaw blade.
Then with a hand cut wood saw, circular power saw or table saw (neither hacksaw nor blade will work here) cut the pieces length wise & you have your trough. Mark your cut lines on both sides first to guide you so sawing error will wander less.
(I do this all the time & make gutters to divert rain fall running off tin roofs.)
The rigidity of the trough can be achieved by making holes along the PVC's long cut with a hot nail, drill, soldering iron point or wheedled knife tip.
These holes let you pass something through to affix the trough to a straight board or pipe. Use a screw, twist a strand of plasticized electric wire or bend in galvanized wire to jury rig the bond. ( I twist & tie the gutter to a series of roofing nails - it weathers high winds all the time.)
End caps can be invented out of what ever you can cut to fit flush or a PVC end cap that matches the pipes original diameter. The end cap can be glued in place or jammed on, it can be cut in 1/2 or left whole.
Stand segments placed under the pipeline will need to be of the height you want & set at a distance that eliminates the sag in the trough length. Sag over distance is due to the rigidity inherent in the thickness of PVC you can afford to work with, compounded by the waste food weight & your plump little critters full of the Aloha spirit.
Concrete blocks stack up easily if they are 8 inch thick, thinner blocks are cheaper but you will find they wobble. You can also make braced "X" frames out of wood & set the trough in the top crotch of the X.
The perforated dividers of your worm feeding stations you can probably invent on your own. The worms will not care if they slid into a corrugated groove or are just jammed into any place you need to.
PVC troughs are not going to harm your worms. It is easy to work with, requires no special tools & is relatively inexpensive .

My concern with the pipeline system would be getting your apartment dwellers adjusted to the smell. Worm bins don't always smell good, and having an apartment complex worth of people dumping their waste into a trough sounds like an invitation to some stench.

I also don't see a lid, which will be a concern for moisture, pests and birds.

Pricey? Go to your local municipal pipe supply for commercial plumbers and city utilities. That corrugated pipe to build that unit cost WAY less than the price of that unit.

Thanks all! I thought it was expensive and the material can't be that $$$.

My building hasn't had a board meeting & I am going to ask about this. We'll save on the dumpster fee. We get charged by number of pickups and WEIGHT.
Total rip off in Honolulu - we pay full real property tax but complexes do not get city refuse collection and have to PAY full real property tax! NO discount for the multi-family dwelling. With the bad economy probably won't get one now!!!

Just a thought as mndtrp said "and having an apartment complex worth of people dumping their waste into a trough sounds like an invitation to some stench".
It would be an open invitation to over/under feed the worms and feed the wrong kinds of foods too.

If you do this you will need someone to be in charge of the bin. The person in charge would need to keep an eye on how much and what kinds of food is added to the bin. And add the bedding in a form the worms can use. Adjust the moisture levels. And will get to harvest the castings, and so on. It sounds like you would be the person elected. This will be a big job are you willing to take it on?

If so I envy you the opportunity.

fosteem1:

No Kidding - it would be my job! I'm still thinking about it because the property could use the "green" and nice compost.

The down side is there is always a rotten apple in the bunch and this building is no exception. It's a nice, convenient place to live and in the rental units - a high turnover. And some of those folks have been & are: TROUBLEMAKERS.

I'm thinking of starting with a compost pile first and see how that goes - I don't want my worms to get murdered by a mean neighbor.

You could always make a worm bin with a lockable lid. Then other residents could put waste in a compost pile/ tumbler etc, and when it had pre-composted a bit, you could add it to the wormery.

A compost pile or tumbler still has to be managed. For a tumbler to work correctly, it needs to be filled with organic matter in the correct C:N ratio, then no more organic matter added until it is done.

If people are just dumping in their compostables, there will be some things that should be broken down first, like cardboard boxes, or stacks of newspaper.

And then there will be people who will throw in plastics and other non-compostable materials.

A public composting system will need a lot of management.

I can say that allowing just anyone to dump into the bin would cause problems. I once had the experience of taking the lid off my thermal compost bin and finding the bin stuffed full of kitchen garbage, bags and all. Seems a neighbor decided to share the wealth.

Have you looked into the black soldier fly larvae mentioned earlier? With a large enough setup, far smaller than the vermicomposting setup, you could handle all of the food waste quite easily.

Food disappears more quickly in a worm bin than in an outdoor compost bin. The worms eat the microbes, but eat the food in the process.

Deanna

I worm compost for one reason and one reason only Fishing worms. I guess its good for the landfills to an extent. I dont see why they wouldnt breakdown just the same in a land field. but thats a whole other subject entirely. im not the most environmentally friendfly person at times. It wouldnt hurt even if i dont believe in the whole global warming thing. it would be a better way of life. organization. I love my garden but its not fully organic by no means. pretty close tho.

Yard waste &/ stuff that heats up goes into the pile.

Food waste goes to the worm bins, except its excess (except meat/fat) goes to the pile, but this is a rare occurance.

Certain food wastes also draw foragers in a pile. Those I give to the worms.

My guess is that if you go public, you would get roaches too - that would make you unpopular.