(BEIJING, January 14) -- Earthworms -- 80 million of them -- play a big role in keeping the Olympic horse stables in Hong Kong clean every day. The worms feed off of waste material from the stables, and in turn, excrement from the worms (castings) becomes excellent fertilizer, reported the Beijing Youth Daily.

According to Liu Daping, a spokeswoman for the Chinese affairs division of the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), after the Olympics, HKJC plans to recycle all waste material from the horse stables.

Waste material from the stables includes horse excrement, leftover feed and newspaper scraps. In the past, this waste material was inefficiently transported to landfills for disposal, according to Liu.

To correct the process, HKJC has taken the lead in instituting measures to ensure that waste material from the horse stables is recycled. Through its cooperation with an Australian biotechnology company, HKJC adopted the introduction of earthworms to the system.

Each day, stable workers collect the stable waste and transport it to a treatment center in Kam Tin and Yuen Long, where the waste material is deposited into water tanks to be treated for hazardous contents. Then, non-organic matter is removed from the material, and after being stored for ten days or so, the organic waste matter is fed to 80 million worms. And the worm castings are shipped to farms as fertilizer.

Each day, 40 tons of fertilizer can be produced from 80 tons of stable waste -- enough to fertilize a 20-hectare farm for a year.

The recycling program for horse stable waste was launched in August 2007 during the Good Luck Beijing HKSAR 10th Anniversary Celebration Invitation Cup Eventing Competition, when 10 tons of stable waste were treated each day.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club promises to achieve a 100-percent recycling rate in the near feature.