THE FIRST few thousands of 18 million worms heading for Gwent have arrived.

Their destination? Five buildings in an isolated corner of the military training base in Caerwent, where they will eventually munch their way through about 15,000 tonnes of household waste every year.

A partnership formed one year ago between Monmouthshire county council and Wormtech, the brainchild of worm expert Graham Owen, will go some way towards Monmouthshire satisfying Assembly and European directives on waste management.

Local authorities must recycle or compost 40 per cent of their waste by 2010 and reduce the amount of waste being buried in landfill sites by 65 per cent before 2020. With the help of those North American Bluenose worms already at the £750,000 vermiculture site, as well as kerbside collection schemes, Monmouthshire is currently achieving 25 per cent of recycling.

Waste strategy officer Paul Quayle believes that figure will rocket as soon as the rest of the worms arrive.

"At the moment we have several thousand worms on site, but the rest of the 18 million will be driven down from their North Wales breeding farm in the next few weeks.

"Our whole operation is expanding to accommodate them. "We currently have two collection vehicles covering Abergavenny, Monmouth, Chepstow, Caldicot, Usk, Raglan and Magor and Undy.

"A third vehicle will begin collecting green waste and cardboard from rural villages next month, and by September we hope to get Defra accreditation to start processing food waste such as meat and fish.

"When that happens we'll be the first in Europe to do so and we'll essentially be collecting 100 per cent of residents' refuse.

"The ultimate aim is to run the site as a business producing a range of organic fertilisers, which will be available from the end of the year." Wormtech's collection covers 30,000 addresses, 80 per cent of Monmouthshire's households - and Mr Owen says the worms have captured the imagination of the public.

"People are recycling more and more now. We take what they give us and feed it through a long-term composting process before feeding it to the worms.

"These creatures have five hearts and a digestive system that runs from head to tail.

"They are 24-hour-digesting machines and they turn waste into rich organic fertiliser which we'll use to make 12 different products."