I love it! I just went to Lowes and bought some Terra Cycle last week and we spread it on the grass yesterday!
I am so happy the world is “finally” figuring out that we need to change our ways and make this a better, greener world! ;o)
This is a bunch of crap in every way. This is essentially making what is generally referred to as compost tea but destroying the true benefits. It’s true that this will provide organic nutrients for plant uptake, but the real benefit of compost teas is the dense population of beneficial micro-organisms. I’ve managed a specialty plant nursery, operated my own maintenance and landscape design company, and am now a landscape architect. First, if you bottle it and put it on a shelf, the organisms no longer have oxygen or sugars for food to survive and they all die. Second, if you are trying to maximize the benefit of compost tea, you use a blend of different composts not just earthworm castings because different micro-organisms flourish in different animal products. You want to have the highest density and diversity because different organisms benefit different plants and break down different nutrients for uptake by plants. It would be better and much cheaper to just find a local source of earthworm castings (which I am a fan of) or any other quality animal compost (which you are generally not going to find at Wal-Mart) and apply it directly to your soil. When it rains or you water, you’d be doing something more beneficial for your plants and avoiding bottling and shipping a product across the country. This is a scam to prey on the ignorance of eco-yuppies that want to feel less guilt for having stuff. If you want the real benefit of compost tea, you can pretty easily and extremely cheaply make it yourself. Most people don’t want to spend the time to do it so you can normally buy it at local plant nurseries that market themselves as organic, etc. If you can’t find it there, then you should be able to get information from them as to where to find it. I am from Austin and cannot speak to the availability of these products around the country, but assume that it should be around as easy as it is to make. The problem with the marketability of it, is it has no shelf life really. The tea is alive. If it sits for more than a day or so, everything dies.
I’m tempted to believe Michael and his assertions about the viability of this product. Degradation of our earth’s environment is primarily the result of capitalism, making eco-capitalist sound like an oxymoron. When will we figure out that no matter how it’s packaged, marketed, and sold to the public, most of what we buy used to be available primarily through our own resources (i.e., efforts)? We’ve become so ignorant of our not so distant way of life that we don’t even know that nature provides this (TerraCycle) stuff for free. Now we have pseudo-green companies sprouting like wild-fire, further adding to the unnecessary use of earth’s resources and contributing to global warming. I’m reminded of the Cree Indian prophecy that warns us of our greedy consumption and destruction of our environment . . . “only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”
Michael may be correct but he needs think of this as a few steps forward for organic fertilizer and innovative recycling.
If just one Walmart customer chooses Terra Cylcle over traditional chemical fertilizer then progress has been made. If just one student cleans and sends their water bottle to Terra Cycle for re-use then progress has been made. Thanks to Terra Cycle thousands of Walmart customers and thousands of students have jumped on the bandwagon saving our streams and rivers from chemical fertilizers and our landfills from plastic bottles.
Consider the hords of people who are now being educated in the value of worm casting tea. That small step will make it easier for other tea producers to sell more live compost tea products from their nursery or local farmers market. Then, once consumers see the benefits, some may even take a larger step and learn about making tea.
Instead of name calling (eco-yuppies) and casting eco-capitalistic innovation as a “scam” maybe we should consider what Terra Cycle is doing as a necessary first step toward a more sustainable lifestyle in this no-work, pre-packaged, profit-driven society. I am, by the way, an organic gardener and have never purchased or seen Terra Cycle. My own worm poop does just fine.
Listen up:
Europe is way ahead of your heads—-we remediated hills of oil soaked earth with garbage and worms regenerating into wonderful rich fertilizer for the local farmers. I did it—so calm down—the worms work.
We built concrete slabs to dump local organic garbage and farm residue topped with and folded into the oil soaked toxic earth. Let it sit.
It was done in Trieste Italy at the Esso terminal. I brought the idea to the TAL De. pipeline that transports the oil over the alps into the Esso De refineries. So be kind to your worms—-since 15 years ago—worms are still munching in Trieste.
What are you doing?
Com’on people—get with it. Using nature is common sense over rocket science.
I’ve had a 5 gallon bucket of composting worms munching away under my sink for the last 5 years. Last night I harvested the castings just in time to make tea for spring garden planting.
I salute TerraCycle for their efforts, and hope that a happy medium can be achieved between Michael’s view and those of us who want to use our refuse to better Mother Earth. Hopefully research can be done to validate TerraCycle’s claim of the efficacy of their product. In the meantime, I am proud of this young entrepreneur’s efforts to make money while doing good.
Using used wine barrels seems like a really good idea because generally have a short shelf life of only a few uses. Many winemakers only use barrels one time in order to get the most flavor out of them. This seems like an easy way to put those leftover barrels to work.
COMMENTS
BY alexandra
ON March 28, 2008 09:34 AM
Fantastic. Very happy to hear about this. Will check my own Wal-Mart, tho dislike shopping there in general. Thank you.
BY Tina
ON March 31, 2008 07:15 AM
I love it! I just went to Lowes and bought some Terra Cycle last week and we spread it on the grass yesterday!
I am so happy the world is “finally” figuring out that we need to change our ways and make this a better, greener world! ;o)
BY michael
ON April 3, 2008 02:15 PM
This is a bunch of crap in every way. This is essentially making what is generally referred to as compost tea but destroying the true benefits. It’s true that this will provide organic nutrients for plant uptake, but the real benefit of compost teas is the dense population of beneficial micro-organisms. I’ve managed a specialty plant nursery, operated my own maintenance and landscape design company, and am now a landscape architect. First, if you bottle it and put it on a shelf, the organisms no longer have oxygen or sugars for food to survive and they all die. Second, if you are trying to maximize the benefit of compost tea, you use a blend of different composts not just earthworm castings because different micro-organisms flourish in different animal products. You want to have the highest density and diversity because different organisms benefit different plants and break down different nutrients for uptake by plants. It would be better and much cheaper to just find a local source of earthworm castings (which I am a fan of) or any other quality animal compost (which you are generally not going to find at Wal-Mart) and apply it directly to your soil. When it rains or you water, you’d be doing something more beneficial for your plants and avoiding bottling and shipping a product across the country. This is a scam to prey on the ignorance of eco-yuppies that want to feel less guilt for having stuff. If you want the real benefit of compost tea, you can pretty easily and extremely cheaply make it yourself. Most people don’t want to spend the time to do it so you can normally buy it at local plant nurseries that market themselves as organic, etc. If you can’t find it there, then you should be able to get information from them as to where to find it. I am from Austin and cannot speak to the availability of these products around the country, but assume that it should be around as easy as it is to make. The problem with the marketability of it, is it has no shelf life really. The tea is alive. If it sits for more than a day or so, everything dies.
BY Darlene Paulauski
ON April 4, 2008 02:43 AM
I’m tempted to believe Michael and his assertions about the viability of this product. Degradation of our earth’s environment is primarily the result of capitalism, making eco-capitalist sound like an oxymoron. When will we figure out that no matter how it’s packaged, marketed, and sold to the public, most of what we buy used to be available primarily through our own resources (i.e., efforts)? We’ve become so ignorant of our not so distant way of life that we don’t even know that nature provides this (TerraCycle) stuff for free. Now we have pseudo-green companies sprouting like wild-fire, further adding to the unnecessary use of earth’s resources and contributing to global warming. I’m reminded of the Cree Indian prophecy that warns us of our greedy consumption and destruction of our environment . . . “only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”
BY NDM - Seattle
ON April 4, 2008 10:40 AM
Michael may be correct but he needs think of this as a few steps forward for organic fertilizer and innovative recycling.
If just one Walmart customer chooses Terra Cylcle over traditional chemical fertilizer then progress has been made. If just one student cleans and sends their water bottle to Terra Cycle for re-use then progress has been made. Thanks to Terra Cycle thousands of Walmart customers and thousands of students have jumped on the bandwagon saving our streams and rivers from chemical fertilizers and our landfills from plastic bottles.
Consider the hords of people who are now being educated in the value of worm casting tea. That small step will make it easier for other tea producers to sell more live compost tea products from their nursery or local farmers market. Then, once consumers see the benefits, some may even take a larger step and learn about making tea.
Instead of name calling (eco-yuppies) and casting eco-capitalistic innovation as a “scam” maybe we should consider what Terra Cycle is doing as a necessary first step toward a more sustainable lifestyle in this no-work, pre-packaged, profit-driven society. I am, by the way, an organic gardener and have never purchased or seen Terra Cycle. My own worm poop does just fine.
BY Arnold Gendelman
ON April 4, 2008 02:30 PM
Listen up:
Europe is way ahead of your heads—-we remediated hills of oil soaked earth with garbage and worms regenerating into wonderful rich fertilizer for the local farmers. I did it—so calm down—the worms work.
We built concrete slabs to dump local organic garbage and farm residue topped with and folded into the oil soaked toxic earth. Let it sit.
It was done in Trieste Italy at the Esso terminal. I brought the idea to the TAL De. pipeline that transports the oil over the alps into the Esso De refineries. So be kind to your worms—-since 15 years ago—worms are still munching in Trieste.
What are you doing?
Com’on people—get with it. Using nature is common sense over rocket science.
BY Brenda V. Cross
ON April 5, 2008 07:05 AM
I’ve had a 5 gallon bucket of composting worms munching away under my sink for the last 5 years. Last night I harvested the castings just in time to make tea for spring garden planting.
I salute TerraCycle for their efforts, and hope that a happy medium can be achieved between Michael’s view and those of us who want to use our refuse to better Mother Earth. Hopefully research can be done to validate TerraCycle’s claim of the efficacy of their product. In the meantime, I am proud of this young entrepreneur’s efforts to make money while doing good.
BY WinoG
ON July 21, 2014 11:25 AM
Using used wine barrels seems like a really good idea because generally have a short shelf life of only a few uses. Many winemakers only use barrels one time in order to get the most flavor out of them. This seems like an easy way to put those leftover barrels to work.