I have nothing but admiration for the sort of travelers who bring their own delicious, healthy meals to the airport along with whatever vessel it is that we’re now allowed to bring past security and use to consume liquid. But let’s face it: Most of us are not that organized and we end up eating crappy airport and plane food that mostly gets thrown away. (Panda Express is just never as good as you think it’s going to be.) Luckily, the Charlotte, N.C., airport has come up with a solution to this problem: worms.
They are not suggesting you eat the worms, although we do have it on good authority that nobody likes you and everybody hates you. Rather, Charlotte has invested $1.2 million in better solutions for dealing with the shitty food you throw away, including a giant vermicomposting bin. It’s 50 feet long! And when your composting bin is 50 feet long, you need so many worms. 1.9 million worms!
This also means the airport’s housekeeping manager, Bob Lucas, has had to deal with the sort of anxieties familiar to anyone who’s tried to deal with red wrigglers, NPR reports:
Plus, worms are finicky and — as Lucas recently learned — prone to crawling out en masse at times. That resulted in a panicked call to the guy who sold him the worms.
“First thing I told him: ‘They’re trying to leave.’ And he said, ‘Get a light and stick it under the bed.’ And they just turn around and go back in and they’re happy,” Lucas says.
Woo, 1.9 million escaped worms in the airport! We smell a Samuel Jackson movie.
