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More information: Solid Waste Management, (253) 591-5543

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Learn about:
Grasscycling
Backyard composting
Worm bin composting

Grasscycle
Each year, the average Puget Sound area household generates nearly 1,000 pounds of grass clippings. Grasscycling is a simple and natural approach to lawn care that saves precious water along with money, time and air quality.

Recycle your grass clippings at home by grasscycling. By grasscycling, you will eliminate grass clippings from your mower bag and yard waste container. Simply use a mulching mower, which will blow grass clippings back into your lawn where they break down quickly and provide nutrients and moisture.

Grasscycling is one part of a 5-step natural yard care process. Check out other ways you can practice natural yard care.

Mulching mowers

Electric mulch mowers: Good for small to medium-sized lawns. Battery operated. No noise or air pollution.

• Electronic mulch mowers have zero emissions – so by using an electronic mulch mower you’ll save the air from gas exhaust. (Push or reel lawn mowers can also be used – but the clippings are longer and may take longer to settle into the soil) Local air quality would improve if more households switch to electric mulch mowers.
• Electric mulch mowers are much quieter than gas-powered mowers. One gas mower produces as much noise as a Boeing 737 plane landing. Switching to electric mowers will quiet down the Puget Sound neighborhoods. 
• Lawns maintained with an electric mulch mower need less water and one-third less fertilizer.

Gas-powered mulch mowers: Good for lawns of any size.

Push reel mowers: Good for small to medium-sized lawns. No engine, battery or cord. Leaves grass clippings on top of the lawn instead of blowing them into it.

Why should you avoid using a regular gas-powered lawn mower?

• Unlike cars, gas-powered mowers are rarely equipped with emission controls. In fact, mowing a lawn for half an hour with a gasoline engine produces as much smog as driving a new car 170 miles. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 10 percent of US air pollution is due to gasoline engines used in lawn mowers, golf carts, snow blowers and other such equipment.
• Gasoline vapors, from spills and leaky gas cans, are a major culprit behind smog problems. At least 10 percent of lawnmower gasoline ends up in the air and on the ground, not in the machine. In the Puget Sound area, that equals more than 375,000 gallons of gas per year. Each year, Americans spill more than 9 million gallons of gasoline, that's the equivalent of an oil supertanker.
• An efficient gas mower will use ¼ of a gallon of gasoline per hour. In fact, Puget Sound residents use more than 17,500 gallons of gasoline in lawnmowers on an average summer day. That's roughly as much gas as in the tanks of 800 sport utility vehicles or a whole gasoline tanker truck - per day. Whereas, an electric mulch mower uses less than 4 cents of electricity per day. Per week, energy to operate an electric mulch mower is less than running a 75-watt light bulb for 24 hours.

Compost at home

Although Solid Waste Management has an excellent yard waste recycling program, we still encourage you to compost your yard waste at home.

Worm bin composting

Food waste makes up about one-tenth of Tacoma’s solid waste stream. Food waste such as fruits, vegetables and egg shells (no meat, dairy or bones) can be recycled—and diverted from the landfill—by using a worm bin or a backyard composting system. 

Not all worms are created equal – red worms for worm bins
Worm bins need certain types of red worms, including Tiger, Indian Blue, Red Wriggler and Brandling worms. These worms eat garbage and turn it into a nutrient-rich soil, called castings. Castings can be used to enrich your garden soil and houseplants - adding lots of microorganisms to the soil and roots. In some cases, castings may be used in place of fertilizer. 

Worm bins can take as much or as little effort as you want although the more effort you put in, the better it will do. Some people set up their worm bins and then don’t touch them again for another three to four months. Others, who want to increase the amount of worms in their bin feed the worms daily, change the bedding often and harvest their worm bins a couple times a year.

Setting up your worm bin
The first thing you need to do is choose a bin and start saving scraps. Worm bins should be 10 to 16 inches deep and have a snug-fitting lid. You can purchase a worm bin at the store or build one with wood, metal or plastic. You can also creatively produce one from an old dresser drawer, shipping crate or barrel.

• Drill holes in your bin - Once you’ve got your bin, drill holes - less than ¾-inch in diameter - on the bottom and sides of the bin. These holes are essential for draining and air movement.
• 1-lb of rotten food for every square foot – Start saving fruit and veggie scraps about a week before adding worms to your bin - worms like rotting food much more than fresh food. You need to feed the worms about 1 pound of food for every square foot of space in your bin.
• Location, location, location - Worms can live in temperatures between 40 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, but room temperature works best to keep worms alive and healthy. The bin needs to be easily accessible, to put new fruit and vegetable scraps in and take the castings out. 
• Create bedding – Worms like lots of moist newspaper or leaves and a little dirt. A new worm bin should be filled two-thirds full with these items and/or corrugated cardboard, compost and straw.
• Add red worms - Red worms compost materials, earthworms and night crawlers do not. A starter worm bin should have between a ½ pound and 1 pound of worms (500 and 1,000 if you want to count them). You can find worms by doing an internet search. Many local companies sell worms for worm bins or you can request that they're shipped to your home.
• Feed the worms - One quart of fruit and vegetable waste will keep the worms busy for a couple of weeks. After that, the worm bin will need regular maintenance.

Feeding your worms
Keeping your worms fed takes very little effort.

• Keep your worm bin moist - worms consists of 75-90 percent water so it’s important to keep your worm bin wet, without it, worms cannot survive.
• Worms are not picky eaters – they’ll eat everything from fruits and veggies to newspaper and egg shells.
• Bury the food - To keep out odor, bury the food you place in the bin (worms don’t like light – so they prefer it buried anyway!)
• No meat or dairy – Items such as meat or dairy products do not belong in the worm bin because they will create a foul smell when decomposing. Although worm bins contain rotting garbage, they should never have an offensive odor.

Worms like:

• Fruit and vegetable trimmings
• Coffee grounds and filters
• Tea bags
• Grains, beans, breads and rice
• Citrus rinds
• Rinsed-out, crushed egg shells
• Used paper towels
• Soft green plant trimmings
• Don't feed your worms these things:
• Meat, bones or fish
• Dairy products
• Grease
• Salad dressing or other condiments
• Dog, cat, bird or human feces
• Sawdust from plywood or treated wood
• Woody pruning waste
• Aromatic wood shavings such as cedar, redwood or pine

Maintaining your worm bin

• Bury the food - Worms can eat about a pound of food scraps per square foot of surface area in the bin. Burying the food will help keep fruit flies away. You can also freeze or microwave the food to kill fruit fly eggs and larvae.
• Add fresh bedding – Every one to three weeks, add shredded newspapers or leaves to the worm bin. The worm bin should always have a layer of bedding on top of the worms and food.
• Keep the bedding moist - Worms need moisture to breathe. Plastic bins normally stay very moist, so the bedding added should be dry. Wood bins absorb moisture, so water may need to be added occasionally.
• Harvest your bin to reap your reward - Worm bins need to be harvested at least once a year but as often as every couple of months depending on how well it was maintained. To harvest the bin, reach in and pull the worm castings out. You can also move the contents of the bin to one side, place fresh bedding and a handful of soil in the empty space and bury food there for a month or two, then repeat on the other side.
• Keep your worm population in check – Unless worm bins are completely neglected and all of the worms die, the worms will reproduce. Over time, the additional worms will need more food and space. To keep worm populations down, limit the amount of food placed in the worm bin. The worms will compete for the food, so if supplies are limited, some of the worms will die.

Be prepared - your worms may get roommates
After a while, creatures other then your worms may start to appear in your worm bin. Most of the bugs that move in will help break down the waste in the worm bin.

Other critters you may find in your bin:

• White worms or pot worms - About a ¼ to 1-inch long, white, segmented worms. Unless present in extreme quantities, they will not harm the worms in the bin.
• Springtails - Tiny, white critters that feed on mold and bacteria, harmless.
• Isopods – Also called sow bugs, pill bugs or potato bugs, these creatures look like tiny armadillos, they are vegetarians and will not harm the worms.
• Centipedes - These critters will kill worms, so they need to be eliminated immediately. Centipedes have one set of legs per segment on their bodies.
• Millipedes - Recognizable by the two sets of legs per body segment, these critters are vegetarians and will not harm the worms. They will even help break down the food inside the worm bin.
• Mites - Tiny, round-bodied, eight-legged creatures will inevitably show up in a worm bin. Most mites will not harm the worms. Earthworm mites, however, which are brown to reddish in color, may overtake the bin. They thrive in very moist environments, and concentrate on one type of food in the bin. To get rid of them, dry out the worm bin and take the food they are concentrating on out of the bin and place it in the sun. You can also place a piece of bread in the bin and take it out when the mites cluster on the bottom this will also get rid of some of the mites.
• Fruit flies - Where there’s rotting food, there will most likely be fruit flies. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to get rid of them. Make sure and bury the food you add to the bin. You can set a trap or try to vacuum them up to get rid of many of them. You can also microwave or freeze the food before placing in the worm bin.
• Fungus gnats - These small creatures look like red mosquitoes. They will not harm you or the worms. 

Get to know your worms

• Can worms see? No, worms cannot see. They are however, sensitive to light. Worms will always seek darkness. (This is another reason to bury your food in the bin).
• Do worms have teeth? No. Their mouths and pharynx are strong muscles for eating, but they do not have teeth to chew their food.
• How do worms grind up their food? Worms require food small enough to draw into their mouths. Worms like rotten food because bigger pieces are broken down into particles, making it edible to worms. Worms have gizzards, similar to those of birds. The worms store sand in their gizzards and strong muscles restrict and contract so the food gets ground up by the sand. Using glacial rock, dirt or very fine sand in a worm bin will provide the worms with sand for this process.
• What happens to the food when it leaves the gizzard? After the food leaves the gizzard, it travels to the intestines, where enzymes break it down even further. Some material is digested into the worm’s bloodstream, while the rest gets passed through the worm’s anus as castings.
• If you cut a worm in half, will it grow back? No, not necessarily. Depending on where the worm is cut. The end with the head will grow a new tail, but the tail end cannot grow a new head.
• Will I find dead worms in my worm bin? No, probably not. Worms decompose rapidly, so they may die, but never be seen. Even with the best worm bin maintenance, some worms will die.
• How long do worms live? Most worms live about a year. Some red worms, however, have lived in worm bins as long as 4½ years.
• Will worms eat garden or house plants? No. Red worms will not eat living plants or roots. They only ingest plant matter that is dead.
• Do worms have hearts? Yes, they actually have five! But don't expect them to greet you with love every time you open your worm bin.
• Do worms have brains? No, so they can’t be trained to do tricks.  

Still have questions about worm bin composting? Check out Yelm Earthworms and Castings Farm.


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