Californians Bring Worms to Work
By Noaki Schwartz
Associated Press
posted: 12 October 2006

LOS ANGELES (AP) ─ Next to a copy machine on the 10th floor of the city's public works building sits a plastic bin filled with worms wriggling in rotting lettuce. Public servants walk by without even glancing at the box or the note above it: “Quiet please. Worms at work.''

Always on the cutting edge of all things environmental, California is encouraging public and private-sector employees to bring worms to work so that the creatures can chew up apple cores, sandwich scraps and other lunch leftovers and produce compost.

The employees are then invited to take the stuff home and use the all-natural fertilizer in their gardens and on their houseplants.

The state's Integrated Waste Management Board is so serious about this that it has posted on its Web site a list of top 10 ways to recycle on the job, and No. 2 is: “Keep worms in your office.'' the rest