Sikh Temple Feeds Hungry Worms

Religious organizations are used to feeding the hungry, but one temple in Fremont is providing food scraps to worms.

It's a composting project of the Fremont Sikh Gurdwara, which provides free meals to humans too. But their daily vegetarian meals resulted in about a ton of uneaten scraps every month. That biomatter was just going to waste, costing the temple thousands of dollars for hauling, until the organization decided to get into vermiculture.

Their worm bin holds 50,000 worms, according to the CC Times, and converts scraps into compost that can be used in the garden.

A variety of pieces needed to come together to make the bin possible: an expert in waste management took a specialized composting class, then helped pursue a grant.

In time, the gurdwara could bring their waste down to zero -- that's right, zero. They're not the only one aiming for that target: the city of San Francisco plans to generate zero waste by the year 2020.

Or at least, that's what they say. San Francisco is also making arrangements for landfill usage over the next few decades, suggesting that true zero waste may still be some ways off.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
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