Worms are like marmite!

In honour of Go Green Week, we've handed the climate blog over to colleagues to share what they are doing in their own lives to make a difference.

Our second blogger is Kim Matthews. Kim is Campaigns Officer and works in our Norwich office.

“We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow worm!” said Winston Churchill.

Worms are a bit like marmite; you either love them or hate them. I didn’t like to touch them when I was little but that changed as I grew up. While other teenagers were busy hanging around the bus shelter striving to look effortlessly cool, I was busy picking worms off the road so they wouldn’t be run over.  I’m sure I still gave my mother hell but, looking back, I’d like to think it was the start of my planet-saving career!

In the last decade I have become increasingly aware of the environmental consequences of my everyday actions and choices, and I have tried to make changes to reduce my impact.  For an RSPB guide to some easy steps to take, just head here. 

It’s not always easy but one thing was particularly fun, and it included worms wiggling back into my life!  I had been reading in the bath (my favourite place), a brilliant book called ‘How Green Are My Wellies’ by Anna Shepard. The chapter was about food waste and wormeries and included running worm races at a dinner party (I highly recommend you read it!).  It sounded such a perfect way to deal with kitchen waste I was determined to get one myself.

I wasn’t brave enough to make my own wormery, although there are plenty of guides out there if you are of the DIY persuasion. I was so excited when my Worm Cafe arrived, complete with bedding, worms and even worm treats! Within 20 minutes I was adding the worms, and they were off!  Now before you go digging up earthworms, wormeries need special worms, tiger worms to be exact (see, even the name is exciting!).

Several years later and my composting cafe is still going strong. I am the proud owner of around 1000 worms who produce regular supplies of worm ‘tea’ (an excellent liquid plant feed) and super-rich compost.  It requires almost no effort and, along with a council-provided £5 compost bin, I can handle virtually all the kitchen waste produced by two people.

We are due to run out of landfill sites within a few years so anything we can do to reduce the waste that goes to them has to be a good thing.  If you don’t have outdoor space for a wormery then try a bokashi bin which you can keep in your kitchen. It uses special bran to break down your waste, just don’t ask me how!

My top tips:

1. Get smart with your shopping, try to avoid having to throw food away.
2. Get creative with leftovers rather than heading straight to the bin.
3. Get composting.
4. Get informed – sometimes it makes hard reading, but if you know the issues you absolutely can play a part in tackling them. Check out Ethical Consumer.