Thousands of imported earthworms could be used to eat household food waste at housing estates by the end of the year if a pilot scheme conducted at Kadoorie Farm is successful.
About 12,000 red worms from the mainland are being used in the trial, which mirrors a system used at the Sydney Olympic village in 2000 and likely to be used in Beijing next year.
Local worms cannot be used because they are too 'lazy' to work through the waste from top to bottom, the farm's worm expert, Judy Wan Hon-chi, says.
As well as eating the waste, the worms ventilate it with their burrows and provide excrement that can be used as fertiliser.
Dr Wan started a three-month pilot scheme last month to collect trial data for a food waste reduction programme, which is expected to be launched by the end of this year at some of the 18 housing estates that have their own gardening programmes.
The impact of the city's climate on the worms, the type and amount of food waste they prefer and the best way to harvest the excrement are being studied, along with ways to prevent the red worms breeding with local worms.
The worms have been put into three large glass boxes, 65cm long and 90cm high, with soil beds, to eat three to six kilograms of food waste, such as vegetables and fruit peel, from the farm's staff canteen.
