Minister greets 16,000 slimey visitors!
5/2/01
Minister for the Environment and local Government Mr Noel Dempsey T.D. was at St. Michael’s Primary School, Trim last week to greet the newest arrivals to the town, 16,000 worms which took up employment at the school as waste disposal engineers in the school’s new wormery. Welcoming the new arrivals, Mr. Dempsey praised the initiative of the class teacher Mrs Bríd Gorry and the tremendous work done by the students in her class in preparation for the new arrivals. Mr Michael Lynch from Irish Earthworms Ltd, Cork travelled up from the southern capital with the worms to ensure that they settled into their new employment. " I am amazed at the amount of knowledge these boys have about their new arrivals. This is definitely one of the best prepared classes I have delivered a wormery to and if the boys keep up their interest waste disposal will no longer be a problem for the school community." Once the worms were settled in, the boys fed them a hearty meal of newspaper, cardboard and lunch leftovers which they prepared earlier and the visitors showed their appreciation by munching away quietly.
The wormery contains 8 kgs (16,000) Red/Tiger worms that will recycle all the school’s waste. These worms will eat at least half their body-weight every 24 hours and leave in its place their castings also known as vermicompost. The vermicompost is organic and rich in nutrients and will be used in the school’s flowerbeds. The worms are hermaphrodites and will produce an egg every two-weeks. These cocoons can contain between 2 to 10 baby worms. The baby worms will be mature enough to begin breeding themselves at 20 weeks. A worm will produce eggs for up to 3 years but can live for 15 years. The school received some sponsorship from Meath County Council and would welcome any contributions from local businesses.
Speaking at the launch of the wormery, Mr Dempsey said that the initiative taken by the school should "serve as an educational tool for the whole community and help focus on the possibilities for waste management not only at school level but also at domestic level".
He praised the efforts of the school in the development of an integrated waste management system among the students. "The collection of waste foodstuffs and papers, the school litter reduction programme, the can recycling and the growing of trees are all essential elements for the creation of a better environment for the future. St Michael’s has given a lead in this area and I hope that the school’s example will be followed by many others schools and communities in the future", the Minister said.
He thanked Meath Co. Council for its support for the new project at St Michael’s and he promised to visit the school again to monitor the success of the project……the worms munched in agreement with all the Minister had to say!