Li Yulan removes a layer of garbage to reveal the oligochaeta. Trash-eating worms are new to the city. Photo: Huang Shaojie

By Huang Shaojie

A half-Chinese, half-Japanese worm may hold the key to solving the city's kitchen garbage challenges, as some pioneering communities are trying to find out.

A humble pilot project farming a special type of earthworms has been going on for two weeks in the old city quarter of Dongsi Wutiao, Dongcheng district, under the supervision of Global Village of Beijing, a non-profit organization dedicated to environmental education and community involvement.

"I believe vermicomposting works. But we need to start gathering data on what makes the optimum conditions for it to work," said Zhang Qiang, the organization's project manager.

Vermicomposting refers to the process of using worms to convert food waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer for plants, a method new to Beijingers.

Zhang engaged resident Li Yulan in the pilot project. Lucky Li has three boxes of worms.

"They love watermelon peel," Li said. She removed a slice to reveal a tangled mass of fleshy red worms, some squirming back into the black, moist soil.

Global Village of Beijing started its experiment with two kilograms of earthworms purchased from worm farming companies on August 11.

Lab observations have shown one kilo of Nippon night crawler can consume the same amount of food waste in 24 hours, Zhang said. Variables like temperature and humidity can lower the efficiency or even kill the worms.

A similar program in which Global Village of Beijing was involved failed in March last year when all the earthworms adopted by volunteering households died.

But more encouraging results have already been achieved across town. Kanglongyuan, Daxing district, is 10 months into its vermicomposting project and their worms are thriving, said Yuan Zhiping, the community's residents committee secretary.

"When the temperature, humidity and food are right, the worms reproduce very fast," Yuan said.

Cultivated by the Japanese about three decades ago, this particular type of worm can reproduce a hundredfold each year, according to Lü Zhongliang, manager of Lühuanjingyu, a company in Shunyi district that produces 60,000 tons of worm fertilizer a year.

His worms can do more than garbage, Zhang hopes.

When the project goes large, households raising worms may expect revenue from sell-ing worm castings to organic farmers. Plus, the worms themselves can be used by the pharmaceutical industry. An enzyme in the worm is a crucial ingredient in making medicine to combat blood clots, Lü said.