Vermicomposting Gum?

This little experiment is a hat-tip to Larry “Garbage Guru” Duke – who suggested gum vermicomposting as a potential idea for our “Worm Inn Project Challenge”.

I’ve vermicomposted a LOT of different things over the years, but for some reason gum has never really crossed my mind as something to try (even though I’ve been a regular gum-chewer for quite some time).

For the past week or two I’ve been depositing pieces of used chewing gum on a piece of paper (thankfully my wife didn’t discover my little collection – don’t need her thinking I’m weirder than she already does! lol). Today I placed the gob (paper and all) in my VB48 – up on the surface where I can more easily observe what’s going on – and then covered it over with my plastic mulch material.

I’m definitely interested to see what happens.
Stay tuned!
8)

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Comments

    • Kim from Milwaukee
    • April 18, 2013

    feeling a little queasy here….yes, rotten veggies don’t make me queasy, used slimy gum mounds do. deal with it. 🙂

    • Bentley
    • April 18, 2013

    Haha – yeah, probably could have made that one a little less of a close-up. Pouring the water over it didn’t help either.
    It IS pretty funny to think about the things that DO and DON’T make use queasy!

    • Lynn
    • April 18, 2013

    Sorry, Bentley, I’m a fan, but that’s just plain gross….ugh

    • John W
    • April 18, 2013

    Kind of looks like a brain.
    Interesting. I can’t imagine the worms doing to much with it. Seems like once they get the basic sugar off there won’t be anything left but the rubber. Looking forward to finding out what does happen

    • John Duffy
    • April 18, 2013

    Should have rolled them up to resemble worms;)

    • Sharon K
    • April 18, 2013

    A lot of gum for just one week lol.

    • Melody
    • April 18, 2013

    What kind of gum? Do you know what kind of plastic they use in the gum base?

    • Lynn
    • April 19, 2013

    okay, now that the picture is off my screen….good question, Melody. chewinggumfacts.com says it’s mostly synthetic rubber with softening agents. Now I’m REALLY curious to see if worms pay any attention to it at all!

  1. I’ve had some in my bin a couple months. Hoping to see if it ever comes out the bottom. Next i have to find some actual chicle gum. Even if i have to order it off the net. They go back to Chicle i have little doubt we can compost it. May be what they need to see to go back to something that isn’t landfill material. Maybe we should be sticking our gum in the recycle bin? Lol!
    I’m fixing to see what Isopods do with it. They get bored, they’ve been known to eat styrofoam. Lol!

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