Vermicompost - Benefits

Benefits

Soil

  • Improves its physical structure
  • Enriches soil with micro-organisms (adding enzymes such as phosphatase and cellulase)
  • Microbial activity in worm castings is 10 to 20 times higher than in the soil and organic matter that the worm ingests
  • Attracts deep-burrowing earthworms already present in the soil
  • Improves water holding capacity

Plant growth

  • Enhances germination, plant growth, and crop yield
  • Improves root growth and structure
  • Enriches soil with micro-organisms (adding plant hormones such as auxins and gibberellic acid)

Economic

  • Biowastes conversion reduces waste flow to landfills
  • Elimination of biowastes from the waste stream reduces contamination of other recyclables collected in a single bin (a common problem in communities practicing single-stream recycling)
  • Creates low-skill jobs at local level
  • Low capital investment and relatively simple technologies make vermicomposting practical for less-developed agricultural regions

Environmental

  • Helps to close the "metabolic gap" through recycling waste on-site
  • Large systems often use temperature control and mechanized harvesting, however other equipment is relatively simple and does not wear out quickly
  • Production reduces greenhouse gas emissions such as methane and nitric oxide (produced in landfills or incinerators when not composted or through methane harvest)

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