50,000 worms to turn trash into cash

They're tiny and squirmy but Karen Allan values her thousands of wormy workers.

Allan has just invested in an industrial-scale vermiculture bin. The worms chow down on anything from vegetable scraps to tea bags. She's hoping what comes out will be a black gold of sorts for her business.

Her company in Regina, PV Waste Solutions, does all kindsof different composting, but recently, Allan decided to try vermiculture on a bigger scale.

"Vermicomposting is by far my favourite method of composting food waste and it's also the easiest," she told CBC Saskatchewan's Blue Sky. "It's not for the squeamish, though."

Her bin at work can accommodate 50,000 red wiggler worms. Right now, she's just waiting for the little guys to multiply up to that number. When at full capacity, her worms can eat 50 pounds of material perday.

It turns out she doesn't just leave her work at the office. She has tubs with 6,000 worms at home where worms eat her kitchen and yard scraps. She says her kids love to help out with the project.

Allan hopes her industrial operation will produce enough compost so she can start commercial sales next summer.

If you don't want to wait for that, you can buy some wiggly worms of your own. Her company sells a home vermicomposting system complete with 1,000 worms.