Red Worm Composting Project

Kasaan School

The Kasaan School and the Organized Village of Kassan developed a

successful worm composting project in their community. Students
constructed composting bins and used red worms and kitchen vegetable
waste collected from community members to make the compost.
Compost material was used to plant flowers in flower boxes built by the
students, and the flowers were placed around the Village as part of a
beautification project. The students created quarterly newsletters to
inform the community about their composting project and to promote
awareness about recycling in general.
At the 2001 Earth Day Fair in Craig, the students gave a demonstration
of their project to other school students. They let the other students feel the worms in the compost, shared
how/what they fed them, and explained the temperatures necessary for the process, etc. Kasaan students
gave out starter pots, compost, and flower seeds to those attending the fair.
The project has been a great success and the Kasaan students continue to make red worm compost and share
information about their project with schools across Price of Wales Island.

Contact Pam McCamy, Organized Village of Kasaan Natural Resource Department, Phone: 542-3008
She has a wealth of helpful information about how they started and/or carried out their project including
their full project budget, grant write-up, community compost newsletters, photographs, letters from kids
involved in the project, bin construction, supply information, and hands-on advice.

Where they purchased supplies

Worms and worm supplies
Yelm Earthworm
Contact 1 (877) 339 6767 or (206) 352 9565 or check out their website:
www.yelmworms.com/

Worms at Home Composting Supplies

Contact 604 462-9150

Vermicomposter bins
Busch Systems
Contact: 1-800-565-9931
http://buschsystems.com/composters.html

Other composting resources

Building a composting bin
http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/hort/g06957.htm

Composting tutorial on SWAN

www.ccthita-swan.org/Tutorials/composting_final.cfm

2005 Solid Waste Alaska Network (SWAN) www.ccthita-SWAN.org, CCTHITA, prepared by Zender Environmental www.zender-engr.net
Kasaan School Composting
Project

Created and Maintained by the students of Kasaan and

the Natural Resource Department of the Organized
Village of Kasaan
 Contents
„ Concern for Solid „ Created Plan of Action
Waste Disposal in „ Implemented Plan
Kasaan
„ Evaluation of the Plan
„ Applied for Educational
Grant through EPA „ Classroom and Hands
Region 10 on Periodic Training
„ Sources for Materials Sessions
„ Economics of „ Presented the Project at
Composting POW Island Wide Earth
Day
 Concern For Solid Waste
Disposal
„ Sanitary landfill closed in Kasaan
„ Transport to Thorne Bay: 17miles
„ Costs
„ Environmental
 Educational Grant
„ Internet Research for Environmental Grants
„ Wrote the Proposal
„ Worked out Budget
„ Received the grant
 Supply Sources
„ Yelm Earthworm and Casting Farm
„ Red Worms - consume a great variety of organic wastes
„ Excrete earthworm casting
„ Tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions (climate)
„ Educational Literature
„ Miscellaneous supplies for project
„ JS True Value
„ Building supplies
„ Worms at Home Composting Supplies
„ Kitchen carriers
„ Plastic Composting Bins
 Economics of Composting
„ Small Project
„ Easily Implemented
„ Self sustainable
„ Sale of worm casting
„ Reinvestment of funds into project
„ Student participation
„ Proposed Greenhouse needs good soil
 Plan of Action
„ Student newsletter to the public
„ “Compost Quarterly”
„ Students build outdoor compost bins and flower
planters with teacher and community support
„ Collected compost from community
„ Students share responsibility of collection
„ Monitored Project
„ Harvested the casting
„ Utilized the product to beautify the Village with
colorful flowers
 Evaluation of Project
„ Feed back from Annual Earth Day Attendees
„ Quarterly reports to EPA Region 10
„ Heightened awareness of our youth on
recycling
„ Frequent quizzes of the students in school
concerning the project
 Classroom Training Sessions
„ Scheduled weekly training of the students
„ Book - “Worms Eat Our Garbage”
„ Activity book w/ facts and experiments
„ Hands on Training
„ Do’s and Don’ts of Worm Handling
„ Learn tool safety
„ Soil Rotation
„ Harvesting worms
„ Most students “dug it”
 Earth Day
„ Created visual presentation on Poster Board
„ Transported compost bins to the fair
„ All students participated in manning the compost
booth and explaining the project
„ Handed out free flower starter pots with seeds
 Questions?
Contact Information:
Organized Village of Kasaan Natural
Resource Department
Phone: 907-542-3008
FAX: 907-542-3006