Walmart Worm Bins

Not sold for bins but they do work great! Walmart sells a canvas laundry basket that is mounted on a sturdy metal frame. I purchased 6 of these about 1 year ago and they are still working great. Good air flow, good drainage. Opperates just like a swag but costs about 10% of the swag. These baskets can be detached via velcro and washed in the machine. I use 100 watt bulb in between 2 of the bins for heat and a 60W bulb on top to keep them at home. I just recently bought 5 of the smaller baskets for harvesting my large bins(large laundry hampers). They are sold in housewares with the ironing boards and laundry needs.

Great tip!

If you have time, would you post your method (start to finish) of worm composting? I'd be grateful.

Zeppy, I was curious about this too. I found a website that explains swags with a pic, it helped me to understand Bizy's walmart bin idea. Pretty neat! Hope it helps you too.

Excerpt from www.wormdigest.org

"The Worm Swag vermicomposter looks like a huge basketball hoop, with its dark green plastic sack hanging from a sling in place of a net. A string allows you to tie the bottom closed easily, then, when you release it, it opens up the short cylinder-shaped bottom of the sack for harvesting. I haven’t harvested castings from the Swag yet, but the picture reminds me of milking a cow! You squeeze this short cylinder (the tit) to let the castings drop through.

I set up the Worm Swag on November 27th last year in the basement of my house in San Francisco. It can be hung from a tree or under a porch, but the instructions say it can weigh as much as 100 Kg (220 lbs.) and I don’t have a tree suitable for that. So, I set it up on a stand, which was easy to assemble.

According to the directions, you put at least a bucketful of castings, coir or finished compost and the worms into the Swag. Then, you place the cardboard disk that comes with it on top. I placed a pound of worm castings in first, and then a bucketful of coir. Then, I added about 1/3 or 1/4 of the material from the top tray of my bin. Because this is from an active worm bin, it included worms, undecomposed food waste and castings. I also put a lot of hand-shredded newspaper under the cardboard. I placed a bucket under the Worm Swag to catch the excess water that drips through the bottom. (Because the plastic sack is sturdy and thick, water drips through even if you tie the string tightly.)

Because I was interested in how much waste the Worm Swag could process, I put increasing amounts of food waste in every month. I also put some rice bran in to raise the temperature. I never chopped my own food waste to feed the worms. As time passed by, I needed extra food waste to continue the experiment and I got it from an organic grocery store. When I had whole apples and pears, I chopped them into big-bite-sized pieces. This was by no means a scientific experiment. I don’t know how many worms I had when I started and I didn’t keep a record of the temperature. Whenever I fed the worms, I turned the bedding with a garden fork, and added newspaper and water. "