No word on how worms will react to their newfound weed-based diet

Waste not, want not.

An Oklahoma business has come up with what it sees as a creative and ecologically friendly way to dispose of unsaleable medical cannabis: let the worms have at it.

Green Leaf Recycling in Muldrow, Okla. already uses earthworms to convert trash into premium-grade fertilizer, but the company is now hoping to add weed to the worms’ waste-filled menu.

“What we want to do is actually reclaim it and reuse it,” owner Shawn Cowan told 4029 News.

The operation consists of a former skating rink now filled with giant vats. Inside of these reside thousands of earthworms, more than 2 million when the facility is at full capacity, and although the wriggly residents currently chow down on waste like cardboard and old newspapers, Cowan’s plans include adding a big dose of bad bud to the mix.

“When it (cannabis) fails the testing, then it must go to a licensed waste disposal facility,” noted Cowan, who hopes his enterprise could qualify to get the rejects.

“Everything that we put into these vats is worm food. Once you dig down into it, you’ll see where the worms are actually doing their work of eating,” he noted.

Cowan has started the process of obtaining a permit from the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, and hopes to gain the state agency’s approval within the next few months. If that pans out, his goal is to sell weed-enhanced worm castings in time for this coming April.

“Then, we’ll go in and harvest all the castings, which is the worm poop, and then we’ll bag that up to sale to the gardener’s, greenhouses, anybody that wants to buy it,” Cowan explained.

“It actually has living microorganisms in it that the plant feeds off of and when the plant has the right nutrients to draw from, no matter what plant it is, it’ll fruit more and be a lot better taste. The worm castings alone will sell for $2 to $3 a pound.”

No word on how they worms will react to their newfound weed-based diet, but if the surge in popularity of cannabis-infused edibles is any indication, it’s likely they’ll be blissfully munching on rotten reefer in the months to come.

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