{"id":64977,"date":"2017-11-30T11:34:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T17:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=64977"},"modified":"2017-11-30T13:58:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T19:58:50","slug":"black-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rebecca Fanning<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Ed Hubbard has been dreaming up worm businesses since before he could drive. Now the 54-year-old has turned that passion into a business, transforming Chicago\u2019s food waste into valuable soil one crawler at a time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Just south of the Loop, three blocks from McCormick Place, there\u2019s a patch of land the size of a football field where more than two million worms feast on old food.<\/p>\n

\"Fruits
Fruits of their labor. These tomatoes were grown in the rich soil processed by Hubbard\u2019s worms.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the first week of November, and a cold spell has hit Chicago. A patchwork of burlap sacks covers the mound, and plastic greenhouse doors flap in the wind. The occasional rogue carrot or bold leaf sprout from a gap in the burlap, and piles of dark brown soil lay drying spread across pieces of old tarp. But below the surface, the worms are hard at work.<\/p>\n

Despite the weather, Ed Hubbard and Jonathan Scheffel are here, doing what they\u2019ve done seven days per week, baking sun or freezing rain, for the past two years. The entrepreneurs are founders of Nature\u2019s Little Recyclers and Healthy Soil Compost, businesses who work together to turn food waste into nutrient-rich soil. And both ventures are on the brink of major growth spurts.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrash doesn\u2019t stop in Chicago. Nothing stops in Chicago, so we don\u2019t either,\u201d says Hubbard. He and his team, including his son Dale, use a process called vermiculture to produce rich soil which they sell to urban farms. In his football field-sized plot of land in Bronzeville off Martin Luther King Blvd., red wiggler worms devour food scraps, then digest them, producing farm-ready soil in three to four months, less than half the time it takes to compost without the industrious scavengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrash doesn\u2019t stop in Chicago. Nothing stops in Chicago, so we don\u2019t either.\u201d \u2014 Ed Hubbard<\/div>\n

Dollars and Cents<\/h3>\n

Chicago residents compost just two percent of organic waste, according to Hubbard, the rest ends up in landfills where it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet. When compostable items like food scraps, coffee grounds and old denim land at the dump, they also miss the opportunity to create more value.<\/p>\n

\"Fields
Fields of brown. Leaves and other organic material that fall on the field only help the compost process. Here, Ed Hubbard holds rich soil that he scooped from beneath one of his mounds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThrowing food in a landfill is like burning money,\u201d Hubbard says. And he should know. Each month, Hubbard\u2019s worm-powered business turns 50 tons of food waste into healthy soil that he sells to the tune of $29.99 for 10 pounds.<\/p>\n

In an area infamous for industrial pollution, urban farming is a challenge. Lead-filled soil limits would-be growers\u2019 ability to plant gardens within the city limits. Even Hubbard\u2019s worm farm is required by law to sit on top of a layer of concrete, separating his dirt piles from what could be contaminated soil beneath the surface and keeping it top-quality for his buyers. And that dearth of reliable soil is what makes his nutrient-rich stuff so valuable.<\/p>\n

But city-wide composting is not the solution either, at least not yet, Hubbard says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst thing that could happen would be for the city to mandate composting in Chicago,\u201d says Hubbard, who is looking to raise funds to expand his business three-fold in the next few years. A dramatic increase in organic waste without a parallel infrastructure to match would overwhelm Hubbard\u2019s worm farms and could put him out of business, leaving Chicago\u2019s composting up to commercial operators like Lakeshore Recycling and Waste Management.<\/p>\n

Coffee Grounds and Banana Peels<\/h3>\n
\"Pedal-powered\"
Pedal-powered. Jonathan Sheffel and Devon Kondziela at the worm farm as they prepare their rigs to pick up food waste from Chicago residents.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hardworking worms need to eat. And for now, food waste collection is not widely implemented in Chicago. Healthy Soil Compost collects food waste from private homes, offices, schools and restaurants across the city that opt-in. The company charges $40 per month for weekly compost collection at private residences, and more for commercial pickups depending on size. Scheffel pays the worm farm to process the food waste, and buys back soil at the end of the process. He gives his customers four pounds of what he calls \u201ccaviar compost\u201d a few times per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like an ultimate hustle, to get someone to pay for their waste. But it\u2019s obviously something that a lot of people think about,\u201d says Scheffel, who handles more than 7,000 pounds of food waste per week for more than five condo buildings, 330 households and 45 commercial spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to know where their food is coming from more and more,\u201d Scheffel says. \u201cWe\u2019re like the small farmers, and people want to know where their food is going to. We\u2019re thriving right now just being this personal connection to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Scheffel\u2019s business has grown entirely through word of mouth, though they\u2019re considering a marketing campaign in the next year to boost awareness and participation.<\/p>\n

Compost Igloos<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s now November and a few snowflakes are falling, but Ed Hubbard isn\u2019t worried about his worms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the most pampered worms in America,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re Chicago worms, they\u2019re hard-working.\u201c Hubbard says his Red Wiggler worms can handle temperatures down to freezing, though they start to get sluggish at about 50 degrees. \u201cIf they freeze, they die,\u201d he warns. But worm eggs can handle minus 10 degree temperatures for short periods of time, and can stay cold for up to six months.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy piles never freeze,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the winter, these things are like compost igloos.\u201d<\/p>\n

While worm digestion itself produces no additional heat, Hubbard and his team use other compost methods to keep the ground between 60 and 80 degrees, an ideal temperature for healthy, productive worms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use traditional composting methods in non-traditional ways,\u201d he says. \u201cIt took me a while to figure out the formula, and I froze a lot of worms in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hubbard\u2019s formula involves a system of alternating layers to reach the ultimate temperature. The first layer\u2014city waste like coffee grounds and brewer\u2019s grains\u2014heats the ground to 155 degrees as it breaks down, while the second layer\u2014greens, leaves and other materials\u2014won\u2019t produce enough heat to keep the ground from freezing. Neither layer on its own would keep worms alive, but a blend of the two creates an ideal living environment and allows Hubbard to do what no one thought possible, keep worms alive and productive twelve months of the year.<\/p>\n

Worm digestion and compost ratios are just one piece of this puzzle. It\u2019s the wigglers\u2019 human counterparts that must reconsider their trash\u2019s economic and environmental potential before it\u2019s dragged out to the curb.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefits of composting on the community and the environment, those are intangible, you don\u2019t get a give-back of those in your lifetime,\u201d Scheffel says. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard thing to sell and to say: We should be paying more for our trash because it\u2019s going to help future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

PHOTO AT TOP: A \u201cherd\u201d of Ed Hubbard\u2019s valuable worms which he sells online for $25 per pound. (Rebecca Fanning\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rebecca Fanning Medill Reports Ed Hubbard has been dreaming up worm businesses since before he could drive. 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