There are many ways to worm your way to success, but one man's plan is to help solve Ireland's industrial waste crisis by providing armies of worms that will literally eat their way through it.
Michael Lynch of the Irish Earthworm Company hopes to attack our growing organic industrial-waste problem by literally letting his worms dine on the dumps.
Not only does he intend to use the waste-ingesting worms to get rid of thousands of food-factory byproducts, he also hopes to use the residue to help farmers nourish their soil and tackle a looming excess-nitrate problem.
Michael, from Bandon, Co Cork, shot to fame some years ago with his solution to domestic waste, using worms to digest organic household leftovers.
He will use the same principle but magnify the scale to get rid of heaps of chicken and fish processing byproducts and sewage sludge.
His new company, Sustainable Waste Products, has six industrial waste sites, at licensing or planning stage, around Ireland.
The site most advanced in initial trials is at Burt, Co Donegal, halfway between Letterkenny and Derry. In just three months he hopes to open his first environmentally friendly recycling waste site. He will then follow through with five others.
The trial results so far are very positive.
"This type of organic industrial waste-management is used in New Zealand and Australia with good results," Michael said.
"There are huge advantages as it is an environmentally friendly solution, and the compost residue will benefit the farmer, who can use it as a form of soil amendment.
"This will prove very beneficial if Ireland is ever branded a nitrite-sensitive zone."
Michael started off with the aim of making households capable of totally disposing of their own domestic refuse.
The system operates on the principle of five stackable bins, with front-facing feeder-flaps. There is an individual container for cans (squashed in a can-crusher), plastics (washed and squashed), glass, cardboard/paper and household food waste.
The last is fed to the worms in the garden compost bin. The others are deposited in recycling collection points. There are many pockets of bin-free households in the country.
"I was aware through research that industrial waste in this country was going to go through the roof. There is undoubtedly a crisis in Ireland, and the EU is on the brink of imposing heavy sanctions," Michael said.
There are now 26 farmers in Ireland breeding worms from cocoons in a reproductive cycle that takes about four months to complete.
Meanwhile, his new company, set up for the purpose of designing, building and constructing composting facilities for industrial waste, is capable of dealing with up to 500 cubic metres of organic byproducts in some sites, including animal-processing byproducts and sewage sludge.
The sites will be able to cater for between 5,000 and 40,000 tonnes of waste each. An Environmental Protection Agency licence will be required for sites dealing with over 5,000 tonnes.
The waste will be devoured by the worms, which feed on decaying matter.
The worms are the relative of the humble earthworm, are dark red or grey in colour, striped, and vary between a half-inch to three inches in length.
Sites can also cater for the mechanical and biological treatment of segregated waste, such as cardboard and paper. They will be able to treat unsegregated waste as well, the worms acting as natural segregators, composting the organic and leaving inert material behind.