by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Kealan Gell

Age: 21

Occupation: Co-founder of Gorilla Composting

Bio: This crafty downtown resident and reputed mathematical genius is currently studying civil engineering at McGill, focusing his superior brain on the study of wastewater treatment. The co-founder of McGill’s Gorilla Composting organization and one bad-ass cellist to boot, Kealan first became interested in organic agriculture as a teenager but was finally moved to get personally involved after researching Quebec’s various waste management systems and quickly realizing that we’re all doomed if changes are not soon implemented. Since launching Gorilla Composting just a little over a year ago, Kealan and his fellow primates in the organization have effectively set up compost systems for all of McGill’s downtown campus and residences, keeping countless mega-kilos of greenhouse-gas producing food waste from slowly decomposing in landfills, consequently leaving more room for the old mattresses and Big Wheel tricycles that honestly belong there. “Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean you can’t compost. It’s nothing to set up an indoor worm compost. And there’s absolutely no reason why it should stink up your house.”

How to set up an indoor compost: “All you need is a $5 Rubbermaid bin. Drill a few strategically placed holes in it for aeration, lay a few twigs or some gravel down along the bottom, add some earth, throw in a few red worms, keep it in a warm place so they don’t die, and you’re pretty well set. The worms eat the equivalent of their own weight every day.”

What a kilo of premium red worms will run you: “Anywhere from $10 to $30 a kilo. But you don’t really need to purchase that many. With the right conditions, the worms multiply like crazy. We usually get the best prices for them at Gorilla, if only because we’re often ordering huge quantities.” Go to www.gorilla.mcgill.ca for more information.

One good reason to compost: So you can feel less guilty about driving your Hummer with its drilled-out catalytic converter. “Look, greenhouse gases produced by landfills account for six per cent of total CO2-equivalent gases in Quebec, and organic waste is a significant part of landfill material.”

How to get rich through indoor composting: By selling your worm shit. “If you don’t want your compost, then sure, please, bring it over to us and we’ll sell it. The worm castings—or poo—is worth money. A litre [of treated worm shit] goes for like, 20 bucks. It’s the best organic fertilizer you can get.”

Do the worms ever get bored in their compost bin and start looking for new places in the house to live, like in one’s underwear drawer? “No, they always stay in their bins. They don’t like light.”

Is it true worm castings make for an excellent skin moisturizer and wearing a facemask of the muck to bed at night will help ward off wrinkles? “Uh, no, I’ve never heard about that.”

Last book read: Kurt Cobain Journals, by Kurt Cobain.

Musical preferences: Sublime, Jimi Hendrix, Flatt and Scruggs.

Words of wisdom: “People are animals.”

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