A. Let the worms eat it.

IF you visit the dining rooms at a couple of schools in Malvern you will be greeted with the latest in recycling technology. But you won't see any strange machines or odd experiments - it's just a bucket full of worms.

St James and the Wyche CE primary schools have taken composting to a new level, with a new method brought all the way from Japan.

The system has been introduced by Bransford-based company Bubble House Worms, using what is known as bokashi bran.

The firm's Sheila Nelson, also known as Woody', said bokashi was the Japanese word for fermenting organic matter.

"It's bran that's been included with micro-organisms like pro-biotic bacteria," she said.

"These organisms are found in normal healthy soil but, because of fertilisers, the levels have been depleted in most areas of the world."

To combat this she said they mixed the bran with molasses to activate the bacteria, which meant it could then be used to ferment food waste.

"With ordinary composting and ordinary worms you just put in fruit, veg and tea bags. You do not put in meat, fish, dry products, because although worms would eat them, with the time it takes for them to rot down they smell and attract rats," Woody said.

"But if you treat the food waste with bokashi bran it's different. You collect all your food waste in containers and sprinkle bran on it. You put the lid on and leave it so the bran ferments it."

She said once it had been treated, you could then feed the food waste to worms, which would convert it into compost.

"The beauty of it is it means you can divert the food waste from landfill."

She said they had been providing domestic systems for some time, but this project had been a pilot to see how it would work on a larger scale with schools, and on an even larger scale with Malvern Hills Outdoor Education Centre.

The project, which has now come to an end, saw them introduce the system to schools and the centre, and see how much waste they could divert from landfill - proving how effective it is.

"At Malvern Hills Outdoor Education Centre, they collect all the waste, ferment it for two weeks and feed it to the worms," she said. "We got them to weigh all of the waste and in just three months they diverted 950 kilograms from landfill - that's almost a tonne of waste and that's just in three months and only at this centre - imagine if every school did it."

She said they also carried out the scheme at St James and the Wyche CE primary schools, whose waste was mainly linked to children's packed lunches.

The project was funded partly by Bubble House Worms and partly by the Malvern Area of Natural Beauty Sustainable Development Fund.

It cost about £8,000 - but that had involved setting it up as well as having all the data analysed.

"It's actually a very cheap system - especially to carry. The only cost is the bran which will be about £5 per week," said Woody.

Brian Rhodes, chef at the outdoor centre, said before they had just put all of their food waste in black bags and into the wheelie bin, getting through about four bags a day.

"We were all for trying this, because we are an eco centre," he said. "We cut the waste by two bags."