5^th Graders Write Essays on Benefits of Worm Bins

Students in Debra Frantz's fifth grade class at Halifax Area Elementary School recently completed an assignment that involved writing an essay and creating a poster about the benefits of worms.

The students were required to do research on worm bins, along with using personal information gathered in the classroom. The class has been maintaining a worm composting bin and the students have been observing how the worms eat garbage given to them.

Debra chose the following four essays that she considered the best from her students?

How do you get rid of your waste? We think you should have a worm box to put food waste and grass clippings in. A worm box is good for several reasons such as: worms use the waste to make compost, the compost is god soil for planting and the worms work for free and make no noise.

The supplies you need to make a worm bin are: a bin, about 24 red wigglers, food waste or grass clippings, newspaper shreds and two cups of soil.

After you have all of these supplies, put the soil in the bin. Then put in the worms and food waste. Now you put the newspaper on top of the food waste. Make sure the newspaper does not have a lot of color. After the worm bin is complete you must find a place and a prop for it. For more information you can check out http://www.yucky.com/.

We think a worm bin is good because it recycles trash. We also think it's fun to find eggs and baby worms. A worm bin helps the landfill go down and that makes sense.

How do you get rid of your trash? I've got a solution for you. Get a worm box!

Garbage eating worms work silently, productively and for free. The advantage of having a worm box (is) it saves space in landfills.

A worm box saves water because if you have a garbage disposal it takes eight gallons of (water) to one pounds of food. When incinerators take the sludge they need more water and they make more sludge when they process it.

Worm boxes are easy to take care of. All you do is give them organic materials and harvest the great soil. The greatest type of worms for a worm box are red wigglers.

If you want to learn more about worms go to www.yucky.com."

Carlene Harman and Laura Carbone

We think all homes should have a worm box. They are very useful to the earth. Did you know worms have been converting organic waste to compost for 300 million years?

What do you do with your waste? Did you know that nearly 18 percent of the waste stream is yard waste another 7 to 8 percent is food waste.

Burning your trash is not a good way of disposing of your waste. Every time you burn your trash the atmosphere continents away from where the burning takes place (is) affected.

Worms are cold blooded animals as are snakes, fish and turtles. They are harmless and are great to have around the house.

When you feed worms food wastes, at the same time you are making great soil for your garden that has nutrients in it.

So please, before you throw your waste away think about how worms can recycle and how you can help save the world."

In my own opinion everyone should have a worm box in their house. Worms provide a simple yet effective means to convert organic waste into a nutrient-rich material capable of supporting plant growth. The worms don't make any noise while they are digesting their food. Toxic flue gases from incinerators permeate not only the immediate atmosphere, but also the atmosphere continents away from where the burning takes place.

Worms are easy to feed. You just feed them garbage. Burial of organic waste in landfills presents problems as well. It takes up space nearly 18 percent waste stream is yard waste, another 7 to 8 percent food waste. If a city had 4,000 worm bins and five pounds of food waste, each week in their worm bin, that would be 20,000 pounds of waste per week. In one year over five hundred tons of garbage could be eaten by worms. If you want more info on worms go to www.yucky.com. It also tells you how to build a worm bin. The kinds of worms you would put in this bin would be red worms."