Worms that Poop

I started my worm compost last week. It's something I've been talking about for a while but never got around to. It was really easy and I can't wait to use the compost on my plants. I never thought I could get so excited over watching worm poop accumlate and my trash decompose into quality earth. This is very small scale but the wheels of my imagination are turning as a I envision more and more people doing this and reducing their garbage output by tons.

With the birth of websites such as Craigslist, Freecycle, and even Ebay have reduced landfill growth by a lot. Some examples? Items I would have thrown out after moving: a tacky brass fireplace screen, a 1970's ceiling fan, and 400 sq. feet of cobalt blue carpeting. I listed them all on freecyle and within days had given all the stuff away to people who really wanted it. The old adage one man's junk.....truly is legit. The gentleman that came to pick up all my carpeting had been searching for used carpeting so he could build a large jungle gym for his cat. A little odd? Yeah. But I got rid of a lot of carpeting that was otherwise filling up my garage.

The most impressive was the 70+ year old woman who responded to my ad to get rid of the fireplace screen. Impressive that she was so internet savvy. When I called her to see if she still needed the screen she said she was putting on her shoes that very minute and would be right over. When she arrived, she walked right into my house sat down on the couch and proceeded to tell me all about her life. It was interesting and random. Though Freecycle only permits items to be given away this kind old woman brought me homemade fig jam as a thank you.

Heck, I've even seen worms for composting listed on freecycle. So there you have it. Don't throw stuff away. Recycle it, compost it, or find the one man on the universe that is dying to build a life size jungle gym for his 10 year old cat.