In early June of 2018, composting worm bins and a recycle bin were added to the meeting room at the Argo & Gallup Park Canoe Liveries through a mini-sponsorship from the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioners Office. Thousands of students and meeting patrons now have access to a fun and educational way to reduce their waste through composting and recycling. The worm and recycle bins are a great, hands-on way to learn about habitats and nature’s cycles while reducing the amount of garbage the facility generates.
The bins are a fun way to capture the interest of children and adults to promote the importance of composting, recycling, and reducing waste at the popular park. The facilities do not have access to City compost and the new worm bins have provided a convenient and educational way to compost on site. The new recycle and trash bins support single stream recycling and have a simple, easy to use design. The bins have great signs above them that help users know what goes where with easy directions and clear pictures. The worm bin is even portable and can be easily moved to another room or outside! It’s easy to use, clean, neat, compact, and requires little maintenance.
In just the first few months after installation, around 500 summer camp kids learned about composting and recycling by using the worm composting bins. In addition to composting, student campers were able to use the worms for fishing off the docks. This replaced worms purchased in plastic containers and helped teach about the importance of eliminating litter. The worm bins also provide nutrient rich worm juice for the outdoor plants to help them grow and thrive all season!
Along with the summer campers, the worm bins are available to everyone who uses the meeting room year-round. This includes Driver’s Education students from Huron High School, around 1,200 6th graders from Ann Arbor Public Schools on field trips studying Urban Hydrology, and over 4,000 patrons attending meetings and events in the meeting room at Gallup Park!
The new worm composting and recycling bins at the Gallup Park Canoe Liveries have been a huge success! Thousands of students and meeting patrons now have access to a fun and educational way to reduce their waste through composting and recycling.