Piedmont has been involved in vermiculture, the practice of recycling food wastes into an excellent soil additive using worms, since before our commercial biodiesel plant even opened in 2006.

In 2010 we sold our vermiculture operations to Ben at Carolina Worm Castings.

Along the way we’ve been through a variety of designs, and pounds and pounds of food waste and nutritious worm castings.  In late 2007 we were commissioned by the North Carolina General Assembly to build a flow through worm digester for their cafeteria.  We built a hefty all metal 32 sq ft worm bin for them and they’ve been composting their cafeteria food waste ever since.

So when Lyle started talking with our favorite local coffee roasters Larry’s Beans about building an affordable worm bin to recycle food waste from their employee lunch room, the gears started turning.  We wanted to create an affordable, durable, easy to use, vermiculture digester from recycled materials.  Chances are that as Lyle was pacing the drive at the plant thinking about this one he stubbed his toe on one of the many IBC totes we have lying around the place, and that was his Eureeka! moment.  We’ve designed a 16 square foot worm bin perfect for the cafeteria, farm, restaurant or any other place with a decent amount of food waste and

a desire to starve the landfills and feed the soil…

Vermiculture is a great way to compost food scraps without all the work and the stink of traditional composting. In return, the worms produce castings, a much sought after soil amendment.  Piedmont Biofuel’s Amanda Sand got involved in Vermiculture in 2007 and began marketing the worm castings in the spring of 2009. “Eisenia foetida” or Red Wigglers can eat twice their weight in food scraps every day, and our 16 sq.ft. composters can host a colony of 16-32 lbs of these industrious fellows.  About half of that food ends up as a nutritious and beneficial, not to mention valuable, soil amendment.  So at full capacity this machine can produce about 240 lbs of castings per month.   Besides feeding the worms the bin requires very little interaction.  Not only will you be diverting your foodwaste from the landfill, you’ll be creating an excellent soil additive for your plants or as a value added product.

Our worm bin is hand built in Piedmont’s own Design/Build shop, using a recycled 275 gallon tote, a heavy duty metal lid, grate and stainless steel harvesting blade and comes with a complete owners manual .  We also offer a complete starter package, with enough starter compost, 16 lbs of worms, and we’ll personally deliver and help you setup the composter (within 50 miles from Pittsboro).

Alright, how do worm castings actually help plants?

Everyone knows that earthworms are great for the soil.  What you may not know is that worm poop is one of the best things you can add to the soil.  Worm castings contain five times more nitrogen, seven times more phosphorus and eleven times more potassium than ordinary soil.  In addition to these basic nutrients, worm castings are rich in humic acids, are pH balanced and contain many growth promoting bacteria leading to plant stimulation.  All of this leads to a soil amendment that stimulates plants natural defenses, increasing disease supression and provides a slow release of nitrogen. Worm castings are great for increasing the moisture holding capacity of the soil.  Compared to traditional thermophilic composting, worm castings have 10,000 times greater beneficial microbial bacteria activity.  Additionally, there are a range of soil borne and foliar diseases that are significantly suppressed by vermicompost, such as:

Give Ben a call at 919-255-8527