Worm composting

I am visiting a home that uses a worm composting bin, which is a very good way to keep food scraps out of the landfill and turn them into useful fertilizer.  Worm composting uses worms to do the work of breaking down food and paper waste and is more efficient and easier to manage than a traditional backyard compost pile. There is no odor or mess from the bin if managed properly, and the bin doesn’t take much space.  People add food scraps and damp scrap paper to the top of the bin and the worms happily munch the food scraps.  Periodically, the bin is cleaned out and and the soil on the bottom, which is an excellent nutrient-rich fertilizer, is given to friends who have a garden.  It did take some time to learn the right balance of moisture, food, and paper scraps to have an effective worm colony.  The composter in this house is a manufactured worm colony bin that is specifically designed to optimize the worms’ living conditions, but you can probably build your own.  Here is a link to a Cornell University webpage on making and managing a worm composter. 
compost.css.cornell.edu/worms/steps.html