Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994                   TAG: 9401280191
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Short

SOME STATE EMPLOYEES SOON WILL HAVE THIN

The Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental group, is donating three pounds of red worms that will be relegated to office-building basements. Their mission: to eat leftover food that usually gets thrown away.

It's a dirty job, but the worms don't mind doing it.

Three 3-by-2-foot green plastic bins went to the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. Inside each bin was shredded newspapers and about a pound of the critters, or 600 to 5,000 worms, depending on their age and size.

"It does work and it saves us money," said Doug Foy, foundation executive director.

At the group's headquarters, employees put their banana peels, pizza crusts and other leftovers into plastic containers.

"At the end of the day, a maintenance person empties them into the worm bins. They just gobble it right up," said Joanne Oechler, an executive assistant at the foundation.

Environmental Affairs Secretary Trudy Coxe said Gov. William Weld had asked her about the possibility of using worms to dispose of leftovers.

"He is absolutely ecstatic about the worms," she said. "We want to get comfortable with worms and see how the worms really work and then we're going to pass it on to him."

A pound of worms can eat about a pound of food a day, Coxe said. Worm excretions contain humus, which is a helpful additive to gardens and potting soil.