CHAPEL HILL- The Orange County Solid Waste Department is holding a number of different events and classes coming up all related to composting.

The first opportunity is a worm bin make-and-take workshop at the Scrap Exchange Centerin Durham on Thursday night from 6:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. A worm bin is a small 12-15 gallon container that allows people to easily and efficiently compost indoors.

Education and Outreach Coordinator of Orange County Solid Waste Muriel Williman will lead the event and talks about it entails.

“You can learn how to harvest the compost so you can use it in your house plants or in your gardens, wherever you’d like,” says Williman. “It is like rocket science for plant growth providing rich, rich, rich, fertilizer. I’ll show people how to feed the worms their kitchen scraps and how to maintain it over time.”

The worm bin event costs $35.00. Public school teachers get $10 off. To register for the event please call 919-213-1278, email eventa@scrapexchange.org or visithttp://scrapclass2013-016.eventbrite.com/# online.

Composting expert Williman also teaches free composting classes which teach the fundamentals of indoor and outdoor composting. Sessions will take place on Wednesday March 27 from 3:00p.m. until 4:15 p.m. at the Carolina Campus Community Garden on Wilson St. in Chapel Hill, and on Saturday April 6 from 10:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. at the Community center Learning Garden on Estes Drive. The classes require no registration and children, if accompanied by an adult, are welcome.

Williman’s classes are a benificial way to learn how to help progress the continuous composting process.

“Composting is a natural process and you can’t stop it,” says Williman. “It’s going to happen. You want to do it in a controlled way so that you can maximize the nutrients that you’re getting out of your organic scraps and reducing the amount of nutrients that leach away in the system. To keep critters out of it, you do want to use an enclosed container.”

Orange County is selling backyard compost bins and kitchen counter food waste collectors at the Solid Waste Management administrative office at 1207 Eubanks Rd. They are open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The compost bins cost $50.00 a piece and kitchen collector buckets are $10.00. Payment is cash or check only.