Compost Happened Today

It turns out that I attended the birth of the Composting & Organics Association of Missouri today (at least I think that is the name we decided upon). COAM??? Our company had been invited to meet up with other people in the composting industry at the Lake of the Ozarks today. As Jim is off on his Epic Adventure 2010, tag...I was it. I left St. Louis at 6:10 this morning as I was concerned about the construction on I-44. As it turns out, traffic ran smoothly and I arrived at Tan-tar-a in plenty of time for the 10:00 start of the program. I used to travel to this resort once or twice a year when I worked at MOMEDICO. It was a popular meeting place for doctors and office managers. I didn't like the resort then, and I don't like the resort now. But that is neither here nor there.

Around 25 people attended the meeting from all across the state, with the exceptions of Northeastern and Northwestern Missouri. Perhaps compost doesn't happen in those two areas of the state. It was fascinating to here about the different composting operations. From pig poop to hot dog casings, it's being composted in this state. All I could think was "So many stories. Wouldn't this make a great book?" Oops...time to replace my author's hat with my composting hat.

The main reason for the meeting was to discuss the landfill owners 11th hour attempt to get the ban on yard waste repealed during the last legislative sessions. They tacked a multi-page amendment onto a non-related DNR bill at the last moment. Their rationale is that they need the yard waste in order to make methane gas which they want to capture and offer as an alternative fuel. But the real motivation is that their tipping fees are down since they no longer get yard waste. A local composting company hired a lobbyist and they were successful in getting the whole bill squashed. But the landfill operators are not going to go away, and will most likely come back with a new bill in the next session.

The thought is that if all the organic companies in the state bond together we can present the legislature first of all with a united front, and second of all can provide statistics indicating the benefits of the composting industry to the state in terms of employment numbers, taxes paid, etc. Our lobbyist can beat up your lobbyist...

As a group we decided to form an organization and we all need to look around and see who else should be involved. We will reconvene the end of September and see where we go from here. I just hope we meet in Jefferson City or Columbia next time.

Worms Eat My Garbage

Today my niece Julie came over with her two daughters. Molly is in 8th grade and required to do a Science Fair project this year. She decided that she wanted to do something with vermicomposting. Jim and I have had worms eating our garbage for over 15 years now. Because I go into classrooms and talk to the students about the composting process, having worms to take along was a great way to illustrate how it all works. Plus the kids always get a big kick out of seeing the worms.

I have a mini vermicomposting bin I use for the classroom, and it is empty when we aren't doing any talks. So I let Molly build her own worm bin with it. As she followed my instructions on how to get it started, Julie snapped away with the camera. However when it came time to transfer some of the worms into the new container, no one wanted to get their hands dirty. So I scooped out some of the compost and some of the critters and put them in their new, temporary home. It was probably for the best as I was gentle in moving them. After that Molly added the grapefruit rind I had saved from breakfast to get the worms going.

They took the bin home and Molly will feed the worms and monitor their eating habits. The worm bins are truly full circle recycling. You give the worms your food waste, thus saving on landfill space or sanitary disposal costs, the worms create a compost that can be used on your plants, and any extra liquid in the bin can be diluted with water and used as compost tea. All organic!

Cordelia, who is 8, thinks the worms are disgusting and was dismayed with the fact that some were going to be living in her house for awhile. She calls them little snakes. She had a close encounter with a big snake at her grandparent's house, so anything that reminds her of that experience is taboo. I hope that as she listens to Molly talk about the project and begins to see what the worms do to help the environment, that she will feel more kindly towards them. If nothing else, she probably will enjoy having them eat her garbage.