LA County cafeteria gets its wiggler worms on

Worms at work for LA County.

As of next January 1, state law will require that government agencies such as Los Angeles County dispose of food, plants and other organic waste without sending it to landfills. That's why a load of worms were delivered last week to the LA County Public Works department cafeteria. They are going to help with the composting.

Worms: you won’t find them on the menu, but they’re about to become the hottest new addition to eco-friendly food service….

One of the greenest and most natural ways to deal with organic waste is worm composting, which uses live worms to convert food scraps into rich fertilizer.

Cafeteria employees now dump melon rinds, lettuce scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds and other food waste into four specialized bins that were installed outdoors behind the cafeteria. Inside, hundreds of red wiggler worms devour the waste, producing fertilizer that will be used in on-site demonstration gardens that are being installed to grow herbs and veggies, said Coby Skye, a senior engineer overseeing the program.

“It will be a full, closed loop,” Skye said. “Take food scraps, make compost and feed it to our garden to grow yummy things that go right back to the cafeteria.”