CARBONDALE - Four bouncy sherbet-and-white-colored kittens have wormed their way into a job at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

The family of one-time strays spends their days as full-time mousers at the university's vermicomposting center.

"We call them our biological control," said Andilee Warner with a laugh.

Employing cats instead of traps or poisons is just one example of Warner's drive to help the campus sustain its waste as naturally as possible.

The coordinator of Recycling and Solid Waste at SIUC, Warner was recently named Recycler of the Year by the Illinois Recycling Association.

"I was very honored," Warner said on Monday, standing next to a bin that contained more than 500,000 worms. "It was not something I was expecting. I didn't know I had been nominated."

It is little wonder that Warner was considered worthy of the accolade. She is the brains behind the university's vermicomposting program, which uses millions of tiny earthworms to recycle waste from university cafeterias.

Vermicomposting is a pilot project that was created as a joint effort between the recycling center and the agriculture department at the university.

"It's my job to identify waste streams at SIUC to see if there's something else we can do," Warner said.

A major percentage of dining hall foods can be given to the worms, which turn the product into vermiculture.

Vermiculture, Warner is quick to point out, is just a fancy term for something a little more unsavory.

"It's worm poop," Warner said with a laugh.

The benefits of vermiculture, however, are no laughing matter. The product is incredibly nutrient-dense and ideal for fertilizing crops and plant life.

Agriculture students are using the vermicomposting for sustainable crop research to determine how much vermiculture can benefit vegetables including tomato plants.

Worms will soon be used in creating "worm tea," a process that steeps the nutrients of vermiculture into a liquid form that can be spread on crops at the university.

Graduate student Marc Zucco said it is difficult to determine the effectiveness of vermiculture versus traditional fertilization so early in the worm game.

Zucco has been an integral part of the project. He puts in a few hours each day at the worm farm ensuring that the red wigglers have the proper balance of food and moisture.

Worms have been feasting on food pulp, which is really a mixture of all cafeteria food mixed together and run through a centrifuge that removes all water from the mix.

"It looks like tuna casserole - really nasty tuna casserole," said Zucco, wrinkling his nose.

However, rehydrating the food has proved to be such a difficult task that changes have been planned for the upcoming semester.

"We eventually decided to skip the centrifuge step and simply take the shredded material," said Brian Klubek, chair of the Department of Plant, Soil Science and Agricultural Systems.

Because it was created as an experimental project, Warner and her associates are constantly evaluating ways to make the project more efficient.

"The whole project is kind of an octopus," Warner said. "It's got so many tentacles out there."

Worms have benefited in disposing two other items that previously considered the landfill an ultimate destination - shredded paper and motor oil.

During summer months when dining halls are closed, worms are fed a mixture of compost and confidential documents the university is required to shred.

The vermiculture barn is heated by using discarded motor oil from the university's fleet of cars rather than natural gas. The substitution will save the university $93,000 over a 10-year period, Warner said.

Putting back what the university takes from the region, "closing the loop," is essential to the environment, Warner said.

"We are here to teach but also to lead by example," Warner said.

ashley.wiehle@thesouthern.com, 529-5454 ext. 5807