PHOENIX — Some people call them slimy little suckers, others call them night crawlers... Yep, we are talking about worms!
Zach Brooks from the Arizona Worm Farm let ABC15 in on a little secret…
"Worms love cardboard," said Brooks.
Who knew the wiggly guys loved to eat cardboard!?
That means this holiday season, you can recycle all your natural wrapping paper, gift bags, and ribbons in a worm compost.
“These are composting worms and they will eat not only all your green waste but your brown waste as well anything that was a tree; shredded paper, shredded cardboard, these paper bags, the worms will consume that and turn it into the world's best fertilizer," said Brooks.
It doesn’t take much to get started. All you need is a 17-gallon bin, dirt, and compost add a few worms, and let the little guys get to work.
“If you are ready to tackle that you can do it indoors in a laundry room or a storage room or outside the house next to a shed or garage. Then take all those cardboard boxes you got from Amazon, shred them up by cutting them into slices with a box cutter, and soak them in water overnight and they go right into the compost and the worms will eat them," said Brooks.
Just make sure everything you put in the compost is 100% natural. Worms won’t eat plastic tape, bows, or bags. Adding cardboard to a worm compost is a great additive to your garden or yard's soil.
Another bonus to worms composting your holiday wrapping:
“The worms poop microbes, bacteria, and fungi that help improve the water-holding capabilities of our soil," said Brooks.
For more information on how to get started with a project like this one, click here!
