Thanks for all of your helpful posts. I have been pretty busy lately, but I am going to get in touch with Caco, and I am sure I will be able to learn much more. I know it seems silly to most, but the subject fascinates me. It is so simple that practically anyone can do it and yet so intricate and technical that scientists could spend their whole lives studying the subject and yet never understand everything.
Speaking of home worm composting for household wastes and pet poop, at $25 per 1,000 worms plus the container, it is starting to get into the "hobby" category and therein seems to lie part of the difficulty with its widespread adaption. If it could be looked at as a necesarry appliance instead of an expensive hobby, it would have a much better chance. Other important factors affecting adoption of the "technology" would seem to be the perceived "icky" factor, the time factor in converting the wastes to compost, and the space/location requirements albeit modest. As with all new technologies, there is also a lack of understanding of how it works and how to do or use it. Of course, as with all worthy new technologies, we should not be overanxious in our expectations for growth. If we could achieve a 20-50% year over year increase in adoption of worm farming, that could be considered "success" in my book. After all, look at computers, they have taken maybe 25-50 years to hit mainstream and they are still perhaps that far off from being useable by the majority of the world's population.
More thoughts
In passing, I have considered the thought if worm farming could work as a neighborhood or community project in urban DR. That way, instead of each person having their own private worm farm, there would be a community sharing of resources. My mental "back of the envelope" calculations would lead me to really wonder if it could ever be an economically self-supporting endeavor in any DR urban neighborhood. Of course, a closer examination of real facts and figures combined with some hard work and ingenuity, might yield vastly better results.
Here would be some possible benefits to a community worm project over a home project:
-It would eliminate the "icky" factor for homeowners.
-There would be no smell coming from your home if something goes awry.
-There would be no need to understand worms or worm farming.
-Periodic maintenance would be eliminated for the homeowner.
-A shredder could be used in the community project.
-The initial start-up costs could conceivably be lower on a per-person basis.
-It would provide a meaningful job to one or more persons.
As you can see, many of the possible drawbacks to adoption that I mentioned above would be eliminated.
Here would be some possible drawbacks to a community worm project:
-There could be a smell all over your community if it was improperly managed.
-Someone would have to be thoroughly versed on worm farming to run it and be able to either run it themselves or find someone to do it and teach them.
-Good management and consistent maintenance would be paramount.
-Initial start-up costs could be prohibitively high.
-It would have to be an economically profitable enterprise to survive. That would be true whether it were a for-profit or non-profit organization. It would not only have to generate enough capital to keep up with labor/maintenance costs, but would have to provide a return on the initial investment.
-Someone would have to sort garbage either before or after the garbage is collected leading to more labor costs or more inconvenience for the homeowner and possible costs for separate garbage containers.
I personally, think that even though the economics might conceivable be better with a government/community project, that a home based or for profit project would be the most likely to succeed.
Here are some of my thoughts:
- Home projects mean individual responsibility. If it works or fails is up to you. The same goes for businesses and their owners/managers.
-Government and even community projects will almost inevitably fall to management problems as have even basic services in this country.
-For profit projects might work if profitability could be achieved and initial investment costs kept down.
-Garbage in, black gold out. It's all yours at home. Most people have at least a small yard and a few plants that can always use a bit of fertilizer.
-Labor costs would be eliminated at home greatly improving the economics.
-A shredder is not currently a viable option for a home project.
-There are some who would never do it at home, but who would gladly save their compostables for their favorite relative or even neighbor. For that reason, it is likely that in the Dominican culture one project would serve for several families.
-In order to have widespread adoption, costs will have to come down and ease of use will have to improve.
-Building a low cost, long lasting, easy to use container that has a small footprint seems to be an essential key to any worm farm whether at home or a community project.
) . If you're located in the DR & you have any interest whatsoever in pursuing vermiculture, I strongly recommend you take up his offer and get in contact with him. You won't be sorry!