ENGINEER Garry Lomas faced a bleak future when he was made redundant three years ago. But millions of worms have turned his career prospects upside down.

Garry, 40, of Old Meadows Farm, Burnley Road, Bacup, has never looked back since starting a worm farm. Worms are his bread and butter, says Garry, who moved to Rossendale with his wife, Gillian, 38, from Prestwich 11 years ago.

Since he started his one-man Natural Organic Supplies business, his mail order wormeries have sold well in this country and overseas.

He breeds the worms in a big wormery at his farm and says: "I have applied for a patent on products relating to my Turbo Tiger Worms."

These little eaters can turn their own weight of waste into compost every day, so if you have a ton of worms you can get rid of a ton of waste every day.

This is quite a saving for the environment, as the resultant product can then be used for the garden. The process even makes a liquid which is good for house plants.

Garry finds it amusing when he sends worms to customers by post. On the box is a sticker which tells handlers to be careful because the box contains living organisms. He said: "Whatever it is that post office staff fear most - maybe tarantula spiders - is what they imagine to be in the box.

"The looks on their faces, and the nervous way they pick up the boxes, tells its own story."

The big advantage for Garry's wormeries are the modifications he has made to make them more efficient, thereby creating an environment for happy worms!

He said: "There is a lot of interest in worms, particularly in America, where former President Jimmy Carter's brother became a millionaire due to a worm farm.

"I am not in that league, but the wider your business becomes known, the more successful you will be."

Rossendale Borough Council buys worms from Garry and has taken a lead in encouraging local people to use wormeries and composters by subsidising their sale to local residents.

The council's environmental health officer Sidney Cockroft, said: "We are keen to encourage residents to use these environmentally-sound ways of saving landfill sites.

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