Vermicomposting

by howstuffworks.com

Deep beneath the earth, they thrive -- pink, slimy and insatiably hungry. They're with us all the time, rooting through our gardens, digging through our lawns and consuming everything in their path. Aristotle called them the intestines of the ­world. The ancient Chinese called them angels of the soil. Angels or intestines, worms are a tiny but formidable force, eating their way through organic matter and leaving a trail of rich humus in their wake. Vermicomposting is the practice of using worms to turn your organic waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer.

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Beneficial Indigenous Microorganisms (BIMs)

by A.S. Cajes

Compost Tea used by Malagos Garden Resort in Davao City

The use of beneficial indigenous microorganisms (BIMs) is a development in the use of effective microorganisms (EMs). BIMs, as the term implies, uses locally available organic materials to come up with a mother enzyme (no need to buy from manufacturers). Producing your own mother enzyme is cost-effective compared to buying one from the market.

The technology uses microorganisms such as phototrophic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, yeast and actinomycetes. These microorganisms are composed of microbial inoculants, which could create compost (rapid composting) in a matter of weeks rather than months.

Lacto Bacili is one of the beneficial microorganisms called pro-biotic. It helps in breaking down cellulose fibers. It converts organic materials into humus and fertilizer. It is popularly used in composting to eliminate foul odor due to anaerobic decomposition. This is possible because lactic acid bacteria thrive and feed on the ammonia released in the decomposition process. The lactic acid bacteria do the “cleansing”. They convert these wastes into unharmful ones using nature’s way of decomposition.

The procedure in producing lacto bacilli involves the following:

• Pour rice wash (solution generated when you wash the rice with water) on a container like plastic pot with lid. Allow air gap at least 50-75% of the container. The key here is the air space.
• Cover the container (not vacuum tight, allowing air still to move into the container) with lid loosely.
• Put the container in a quiet area with no direct sunlight.
• Allow the rice wash to ferment for at least 5-7 days. Lactic acid bacteria will gather in 5-7 days when temperature is 20-25 degrees Celsius. Rice bran will be separated and float in the liquid, like a thin film, smelling sour.
• Strain and simply get the liquid.
• Put this liquid in a bigger container and pour ten parts milk. The original liquid has been infected with different type of microbes including lacto bacilli.
• In order to get the pure lacto bacilli, saturation of milk will eliminate the other microorganisms and the pure lacto bacilli will be left. Skim or powdered milk, although fresh milk is best, may be used.
• In 5-7 days, carbohydrate, protein and fat will float leaving yellow liquid (serum), which contains the lactic acid bacteria. Dispose off the coagulated carbohydrate, protein and fat, add them to the compost pile or feed them to animals.
• The pure lactic acid bacteria serum can be stored in the refrigerator.
• Simply add equal amount of crude sugar (dilute with 1/3 water) or molasses. Do not use refined sugar as they are chemically bleached and may affect the lactic acid bacteria. The sugar or molasses will keep the lactic acid bacteria alive at room temperature. One to one ratio is suggested although sugar, regardless of quantity is meant simply, serving as food for the bacteria to keep them alive. Now, these lactic acid bacteria serum with sugar or molasses constitute the pure culture.
• To use, dilute this pure culture with 20 parts water. Make sure water is not chemically treated with, like chlorine, which can kill live microorganisms. This diluted form 1:20 ratio is the basic lactic acid bacteria concoction.
• Two to four tablespoons added to water of one gallon can be used as basic spray and can be added to water and feeds of animals. Lactic acid bacteria serum can be applied to plant leaves to fortify phyllosphere microbes, to soil and compost.

Keep in mind that there are other procedures in producing BIMs. Each procedure depends on the materials to be used. 

BIMs can be used to rapidly compost organic materials, including rice straw. Spraying diluted solution of lactic acid bacteria serum to the plant and soil also helps plant growth and makes them healthier. As it is applied to the soil or the leaves, these beneficial bacteria aid in the decomposition process, thus allowing more food to be available and assimilated by the plant.

Lactic acid bacteria are also known to produce enzymes and natural antibiotics aiding effective digestion. They have antibacterial properties, including control of salmonella and e. coli. To farmers, what are observed are the general health of the plants and animals, better nutrient assimilation, feed conversion and certain toxins elimination.

In addition, EM has the potential to increase rice yield by ten percent. It is also capable of reducing the emission of methane up to 54 percent in flooded rice fields when applied with organic amendments, such as green manure. Other studies show that the use of EM can lead to “low production of greenhouse gases” like methane and carbon dioxide.[1]

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[1] Higa, Teruo and Parr James F., Beneficial and Effective Microorganisms for a Sustainable Agriculture and Environment. International Nature Farming Research Center: Atami Japan, 1994, p. 11

Why we need proper waste management?

by A.S. Cajes

Waste is a resource that is thrown away somewhere because society does not know how to use it. It can take the form of a damaged, broken, defective, extra or unnecessary material produced by a manufacturing process.

Manufacturing refers to the “act or process of generating something”. In this sense, Planet Earth is a huge manufacturing plant. For instance, the planet, through its fundamental ecological processes, combines one atom of carbon and two atoms of hydrogen to form water, which the planet transforms into various states, such as ice, liquid or vapor in a process called the water cycle.

But unlike its artificial counterparts, the planet does not produce waste that cannot be assimilated or absorbed by the natural system. This idea leads to the concept of non-biodegradable waste or stock waste. Stock wastes, such as plastic and tin cans, are resources dumped somewhere and remain there for a long period of time. Because society keeps on throwing stock wastes, more and more non-biodegradable wastes are dumped somewhere until society finds it hard to find a place to store the waste.

Stock waste is the opposite of biodegradable waste or flow waste, which can be assimilated by the environment. Examples of flow waste are biomass or remains of living things, food waste, animal waste, etc. Microorganisms can break down flow waste into materials that can be safely used again. Compost is case in point. It is a decomposed organic matter. It can be used as fertilizer and soil conditioner.

The decomposition of flow waste, however, produces by-products that have been proven to be harmful to the environment. One harmful by-product of the decomposition of organic materials by anaerobic (without oxygen) microbial action is methane, a greenhouse gas that absorbs infrared radiation thereby preventing it from escaping to space. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency: “Methane is about 21 times more powerful at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO₂) by weight…. Methane's chemical lifetime in the atmosphere is approximately 12 years.”

A society that dumps stock and flow wastes, therefore, faces certain risks and problems, such as the following:

• Land use conflicts due to the difficulty in finding a suitable site for stock and flow wastes;
• Health hazards to human beings and other forms of life due to pollution and unsanitary condition;
• Degradation of ecological systems, especially freshwater and marine ecosystems;
• Disasters such as flooding, fires and explosions, and
• Revenue loss due to the high cost of having dumpsites coupled with the potential reduction of the value of real properties located near the dumpsites.

The catalogue of the negative impacts of dumped wastes is “long and lamentable” especially if the flow and stock wastes are mixed with hazardous elements such as mercury, lead and alkali and acid wastes. The need to effectively manage wastes, therefore, should be one of the top priorities of society. This means that every sector of society – national and local governments, business, civil society and the citizens – should work hand in hand to manage wastes well. Finger pointing has never worked in solving the problem of waste management. Since not all sectors of society have a complete understanding about how to effectively manage wastes, it behooves everyone to learn and share knowledge and resources on how to make communities clean. For if cleanliness is next to godliness, then we, as particles of the human society, still have so much to do.