A Chinese environmental group is recruiting volunteers to take part in a scheme to breed earthworms in a bid to recycle kitchen waste in several Chinese cities.

Friends of Nature, one of the oldest environmental groups in China, has recruited 21 families since the scheme was started in March in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province.

"We keep thousands of earthworms in our flower bed. They eat most of the kitchen waste my family produces every day," said Fan Xiaohong, a woman from one of the volunteer families.

Guo Mingliang who helped initiate the scheme in Zhengzhou, said he had contracted a patch of waste land by the side of the Yellow River running through the city, which he used to showcase the effect of biological waste treatment.

"This is our earthworm farm, as big as two soccer fields. We use half of it to raise earthworms and the rest for growing organic vegetables with the worms' dirt," he said.

The group's volunteers believe the loess soil will be turned fertile through the worms' activity.

"If the scheme is successful, we will have more evidence to lobby the government with to support our 'green community project'," Guo said.

He said more efforts should be made to raise people's environmental awareness.

It is not easy to convince people to breed earthworms as it requires a lot of energy and time, said Yang Xiaojing, one of the group's volunteers.

Even though scheme in Zhengzhou is making headway, the volunteers admitted the project was not going well in the other two cities, Beijing and Shanghai, as families seemed less eager to join the scheme.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2010)