Martin worms way into bad books
It is possibly the most Wellingtonesque crime imaginable – operating an illegal worm farm in a council bus stop.
Now perpetrator Martin Wilson has been asked to stop, and he is calling on the Wellington City Council to stop talking about sustainability and start supporting initiatives like his.
The project began with the removal of copious weeds that had grown across a bus stop waiting area in the suburb of Aro Valley.
Over a four-month period, Wilson set up four bathtubs to house his worms. He didn’t dare put up a sign because he would get more compost than he could handle, he said.
‘‘The amount that already arrives is far beyond my ability to cope with,’’ he said.
‘‘This is the perfect place for it and I’m hoping we will be able to reinstate it soon. Negotiations are ongoing with the council.’’
The project has cost Wilson $1000 but he is now in the process of emptying the bathtubs and moving his wheelie bins off site because he does not have a permit to operate in a council road reserve.
Wilson regularly spends a weekend churning mulch within the farms, or distributing the soil his ‘‘beautiful worms’’ created.
Worm urine, which conveniently runs from the tubs’ plugholes, was heavily sought after as a garden fertiliser, he said.
‘‘If you’re going to have a compost or worm facility I think you have to be linked to a big garden or have a very active community, because every day you have stuff you need off site.’’
He was driven by concern over the impact of greenhouse gases produced from landfilled organic waste.
According to a 2016 waste assessment, organics made up roughly a third of material going to landfill by weight.
‘‘Everyone should be doing everything we can, or climate change is likely to end Western civilisation,’’ Wilson said.
He invited the city council to do two things: provide land for community composting and worm farms, and compile all the hygiene and other regulations into one page so private and commercial composters had a go-to for information.
City councillor Iona Pannett, who holds the infrastructure and sustainability portfolio, said the council’s goal was to cut waste by a third over the next eight years but any community efforts had to be permitted and sustainable.
‘‘They have to be a permanent solution and not just something for a year while someone has some time.’’
The council was investigating the trial of an organic waste bin, and officers were in the process of choosing a trial suburb with a mixed demographic and topography to test the possible new service, which would run like the existing rubbish and recycling collections.
The council already had a guide for those wishing to compost.
When it came to caring for his squirmy charges, Wilson said it was not as simple as chucking in old food scraps.
‘‘Worms like it moist, not wet but not dry. They like a lot of carbon. That’s basically just dry material. If it’s only compost you get sludge.’’
Done right, Wilson said a worm farm did not smell much but there would always be a fair number of flies hanging around so it was a hobby best conducted far from houses.
He also had a Goodnature trap set up nearby to keep rats at bay.