FYI
I learned something new today. Something very interesting and I wanted to share it with all of you. Especially for those of you who are concerned about the environment. Now stick with me on this one...
I went to a clinical managers meeting today for dietetic managers from hospitals all around Illinois. Well, we got a little off topic and started talking about a hospital in Lincoln, Illinois that is in the process of starting a worm farm. It will be behind the hospital and be about 30 ft by 30 ft. Basically, it's a big trough that will be filled with worms ($10,000 worth to be exact) and then on top of the worms they will place pulped food scraps and shredded confidential patient information. So the worms then eat the food and paper and produce manuer that the hospital uses on their landscaping. The hospital actually got an award from the governor for being environmentally friendly. Isn't this interesting? The dietitian that was telling us even does this at her home. But she doesn't need $10,000 worth!
There is also a landfill about 1 1/2 miles from the hospital. So they have pipes underground from one to the other to pump the methane gas to run the hospital broilers. So the hospital doesn't have to pay to run them and it uses the methane gas. Interesting huh? Ok so maybe you don't think so, but at least now you can't say you didn't learn anything new today! And you never know when you'll be on Jeopardy and they'll ask you about worm farms!
I went to a clinical managers meeting today for dietetic managers from hospitals all around Illinois. Well, we got a little off topic and started talking about a hospital in Lincoln, Illinois that is in the process of starting a worm farm. It will be behind the hospital and be about 30 ft by 30 ft. Basically, it's a big trough that will be filled with worms ($10,000 worth to be exact) and then on top of the worms they will place pulped food scraps and shredded confidential patient information. So the worms then eat the food and paper and produce manuer that the hospital uses on their landscaping. The hospital actually got an award from the governor for being environmentally friendly. Isn't this interesting? The dietitian that was telling us even does this at her home. But she doesn't need $10,000 worth!
There is also a landfill about 1 1/2 miles from the hospital. So they have pipes underground from one to the other to pump the methane gas to run the hospital broilers. So the hospital doesn't have to pay to run them and it uses the methane gas. Interesting huh? Ok so maybe you don't think so, but at least now you can't say you didn't learn anything new today! And you never know when you'll be on Jeopardy and they'll ask you about worm farms!
posted by Abby @ 5:59 PM
7 Comments:
At 6:21 AM,
Maria said…
how creative! getting rid of confidential records with a worm farm! I like it. Never heard of anything like that before.
At 4:33 PM,
Laura said…
Actually, my parents had several thousand worms on their farm for about 2 years as a small worm farm. (Didn't I ever mention this??? It was during college). They also fed them shredded paper. The worms lived in dirt beds and had to be watered regularly. The "worm beds" (as we called them) were basically used to decompose paper and to allow the worms to breed. (Yes, there was a lot of worm sex going on). Eventually, the goal was to have the worms reproduce as much as possible. Then after a certain amount of time, the worms were "harvested" and sold to a local landfill where they could feed on waste. The overall goal is to reduce the landfill. Then my parents got more baby worms and the process began again. Hmm...I thought I had told these wormy stories before.
At 4:36 PM,
Laura said…
Unfortunately, the reason my parents had to stop worm farming was because their district worm manager was embezzling money. The distribution center in their area eventually got closed down.
At 12:48 PM,
abby said…
Wow Laura, great story! (And yes, I remembering you telling that one before, but it still makes me laugh every time) My friend Sarah's family was also in the worm farming business.
At 2:41 PM,
Abby said…
And how did I never hear about this? I'm glad to at least know Maria was out of the loop as well!
At 11:43 AM,
Maria said…
yes I was definitely out of the loop. I have never known much about farming (surprise huh?) But the weirdest thing..we are planning on having a community garden where I work soon and I heard them discussing getting a worm farm!
At 8:27 PM,
Laura said…
That is bizarre!
Post a Comment
<< Home