Every hotel has its hidden back door, where the tinkle of piano music
and clinking champagne glasses give way to the roar of air conditioners
and refrigeration units. Out back of South Africa s oldest and grandest
hotel, the Mount Nelson, the scent of cleaning fluid flirts with trash
bin odors. Pigeons forage hopefully and the humble cars of hotel staff
line up like patient donkeys.
And then there are the worms: something like a million of them,
according to resident worm farmer Shaun Gibbons. This army of
invertebrates munches through mountains of the hotel s organic waste,
reducing it to fertilizer and compost for the hotel s nine acres of
luxuriant gardens. In the process, the worms are cutting Mount Nelson s
contribution to landfills and to the greenhouse gases produced by
decaying waste.
Gibbons gingerly dipped his fingers into a crate of worms in the hotels
worm farm, clucking sympathetically, since the poor things dont much
like publicity. They loathe being hauled into the light to be examined
and photographed.
Pineapple peels, tomatoes, mango skins, lettuce and potatoes all find
their way into the hotel s chilled trash-sorting rooms, and make great
food for worms, which consume their own weight daily. The end product,
so to speak, is vermicast, a compost-like substance rich in nitrogen and
potassium.
The worms — a Canadian variety in this case — multiply rapidly, leaving
small cocoons in the soil, each producing several more worms. Two worms
can multiply to a million in a year.
The pilot project started early this year, and already a third of the
hotels organic waste goes to the worms, saving a lot of money in
disposal fees and fertilizers.
The hotel aims to process about 70% of its organic waste by next
year.
"The hotel industry produces a lot of food waste," said Gibbons, taking
the lid off one worm crate and prodding the soil. "Were trying to deal
with our problem and not pass it along to the next person. We re trying
to do our little bit for nature.
"My personal opinion: The more people who get involved in this, the
better it will be for the whole world. It eliminates a substance,
methane gas, which is damaging to the environment. Its helping the
ozone."
Previously, the organic waste went to pig farms, which eliminated the
need for the landfill but did little about greenhouse gas production.
The worm scheme was the brainchild of hotel technical services manager
Rob Fiander as a way to cut costs and reduce the hotels environmental
harm. At first he kept the worms a secret from management because he
feared failure and knew of no other similar hotel project.
"I thought it would be a shambles. No one s done it here before. It s
always hard to start a new project," Fiander said.
Vermiculture, or worm farming, was used during the 2000 Olympics in
Sydney, Australia, when 400,000 worms turned the organizing committees
canteen waste into a ton of solid fertilizer and about 265 gallons of
liquid fertilizer.
Gibbons, also an air-conditioning and refrigeration trainee at the
hotel, thrives on the atmosphere of gilded quality throughout the hotel,
built in 1805 as a private residence. The hotel, part of the upscale
Orient-Express trains and hotel group, caters mainly to wealthy Britons
and Americans. Rich South Africans make up about 20% of its clientele.
"It s a beautiful place to be. The international world is here. It s so
First World. That s the thing I like most about it," he said. Above all,
he is proud to be manager of the worm farm, a shed in a cool corner
shaded with green cloth.
The hotel has been operating since 1899, when shipping magnate Donald
Currie needed a place for his English passengers to stay in Cape Town.
The molded ceiling in the hotel lounge is a fabulous plaster confection.
At 4 o clock sharp, an enormous table is covered with towering sticky
cakes for a very British high tea. People sip from delicate porcelain
cups and talk in hushed voices, as if silenced by the splendor.
Do the worms like cake?
The management is coy about the worms diet, although newsprint is one of
the ingredients. Vermiculture websites generally recommend a mix of
vegetables and carbohydrates like bread and pasta, with a dash of cooked
eggshells, to absorb acidity and provide the calcium the worms need to
multiply.
Shredded damp newsprint is placed on top to keep the atmosphere cool and
moist (but not wet). Holes at the top provide air. Holes underneath
allow the drainage of what is politely called "worm tea", a brown liquid
that makes an excellent fertilizer and has the hotel rose bushes blooming.
"It s inspired a lot of people in the hotel, a lot of the staff," said
Orient-Express Africa Managing Director Nick Seewer. "Its funny how
people react, even at the most junior level, to trying to better the
environment."
He said some other South African hotels had expressed interest in the
project, and the hotel had also received many calls from Capetonians
wanting to start home worm farms.
"The interest shown by other hotels, but also by Joe Public, is
amazing," he said.
(Por Robyn Dixon,
Los Angeles TImes, 31/10/2006)