3 Ways Worm Composting Combats Global Climate Change

Worm composting is fun.  No doubt about it.  But worm compost combating global climate change?  Sound like a stretch? Read on.

Worm Composting Reduces Methane

Worm composting keeps organic waste out of the landfill.  Okay, that’s cool, we’re saving space in the landfill.

But what’s more is that rotting waste in the landfill produces methane gas.  According to the U.S. EPA, landfills are the 2nd largest producer of methane gas.  Methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than CO2.  Furthermore, methane levels in the atmosphere are 148% higher than they were in 1750.

Decreasing CO2 emissions is critical, but let’s not ignore methane.  Methane gas is removed from the atmosphere in only 10 years, so putting in the effort now will pay off quickly.

Worm composting keeps organic matter out of the landfill where it would decompose in such a way as to produce methane.  Worm composting is an aerobic process and produces no methane.

Worm Composting Sequesters Carbon

Worm composting creates organic matter and organic matter such as compost and humus sequesters carbon.  That is, instead of being released into the atmosphere by rotting or burning, the carbon gets tied up.

Using compost and worm compost on our agricultural land would turn untold acres of  farmland into a giant carbon sink.

Adding worm compost to soils of any kind makes the soil more fertile allowing plants to grow bigger and more plants to grow.  Plants sequester carbon in their biomass, so more plants equals more carbon sequestration.

So, making worm compost sequesters carbon, and then growing things using the compost sequesters carbon, a double whammy.

Worm Composting Strengthens Partnership

Worm composting changes our perspective and strengthens our partnership with the earth.  By employing the lowly worm and directly observing the amazing role it employs in the fertility of the earth we are changed.  We no longer see a banana peel as something that gets thrown in the garbage and trucked off to parts unknown.  It is no longer waste.  It becomes worm food.

After using worm compost in our own gardens and yards we directly observe what fertile, healthy soil is.  We can no longer drive by a plot of abused land, whether it be overgrazed, over tilled, stripped and left barren, and see it as negligible.

We begin to see ourselves as we really are, caretakers of this planet.  Caretakers of the planet wouldn’t allow the delicate balance of the atmosphere to be compromised.  That’s the 3rd way worm composting combats global climate change.