Our Worms Affair

On 26th Jul 2017, 4N2 started our VIA journey on vermicomposting. Prior to the start of the VIA, educators from National Environmental Agency educated us on the purpose and the importance of composting with worms. Food wastage accounts for 10 percent of the total waste generated in Singapore. However, only 14 percent of it is recycled while the rest are sent to waste-to-energy plant for incineration. As the amount of food waste has increased by 40 percent over the 10 years and expected to increase, this became one of the country’s concern. We, thus decided to seek to learn how we can manage the waste and transfer the learning to our juniors.

We started by preparing the homes for the worms. First, the bin was prepared and then the bedding. Most students were comfortable touching and picking up the worms from the container to its new home. It was a great experience! We had never been so ‘intimate’ with worms before!

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After the initial preparation, we had to ensure that the worms had enough food and that the bed was sufficiently damp every day. We followed the duty roster drawn up and ensure that the worms well well-treated. We would tend to our boxes once every two days. Our duty would be to observe if there was any smell from our assigned boxes. If there was, we would remove those food and replace them. We would need to ensure that the worms had enough to ingest for the week and they have enough water too. Wen Cong’s group was the most successful! They had the most compost as they were very consistent in maintaining the living environment of the worms. Their worms were fat and juicy when they showcase their worms to the other school mates.

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We were glad that we started this vermicomposting programme as it allowed us to learn some valuable lessons. Wen Cong’s group succeeded not by luck. It was through discipline and commitment towards the tasks they were responsible for. Even though they were having exams during that period, they still ensured that the worms were well taken care of. From their success, we learned that we have to be consistent in our effort to see results.

Miss Ang, our form teacher, also told us that our project will be handed down to our juniors so that they can continue from where we stopped. We are happy that our effort will provide a foundation for our juniors to work on so that they can start to promote to the neighbourhood on the method to manage food waste. By doing so, our community would learn how to manage their food waste and generate compost for their plant as well. This is no doubt a win-win scenario for everyone!