Are Wheelie Bin Worm Farms the Answer to Keeping Our Soil Healthy?

Intensive farming has taken its toll on the health of our soil, but a social enterprise in Nottingham has come up with a solution-turning wheelie bins into worm farms and using the power of their poo!

‘Deliverpoo’ is a sustainable solution to the problem according to its founder, who has been teaching people in the Midlands how to turn their wheelie bins into worm farms.

Worms are prolific eaters and fertiliser producers

After spending time with farming communities in Cuba, she quickly noticed that worms are prolific eaters that can turn organic waste into nutritious manure. Worms eat vegetable scraps, kitchen scraps, bread, pasta, and a lot of food that you can’t usually compost. Worms can eat as much as their own body weight each day which will produce a concentrated, nutrient-dense fertiliser.

The founder said that worm composting is a lot faster than ordinary composting, and you don’t need a lot of space so it’s perfect even for people who live in small apartments and don’t have a garden. She adds that the UK’s fertile topsoil has been depleted by intensive farming, and she believes that worms are the solution.

It’s about conservation

Her solution hasn’t been completely popular with everyone, however. While she’s had a lot of support from people in the community, some people, particularly the vegan contingent, have complained that they believe that the worms are being ‘kept in captivity.’ She refutes this however, saying that the worms are very happy and they thrive in organic waste. She insists that it’s about conservation and restoring soil to health for the good of future generations.

Speaking back in 2017, the Environment Secretary Michael Gove revealed that the UK is 30-40 years away from complete fertile topsoil depletion because of intensive farming.