I can't, because I have no tools for chemical analysis.
Common sense tells me that if I wring wetted shredded paper and colored dye runs out, it might not be a good choice.
Regular newsprint is popular with the professionals, and it runs a very pale brown – probably a weak mixture of some color and black.
I've tried soaking stamps from bright red Christmas Envelopes, and that dye runs something horrid. That much dye should be avoided.
Most people over-feed their bins at the start.
With more food than they can eat, the worms die, because the excess food breaks down into excessive harmful goop.
Once a week add two cupped handfuls of chopped fruit and vegetable scraps.
Don't try to make your squirm cope with all your kitchen scraps – the colony isn't big enough - yet.
Don't try to make your squirm cope with radical foods such as acidic (pickles in vinegar) or two pounds of sheep's heart. Stick to basic vegetable peelings, scraps of boiled vegetables (preferably without ketchup or salt) and the like.
Your objective during this phase is to establish a colony of worms, NOT to end the landfill problem overnight.
You peel your banana as do I, the normal way, right?
Three strips.
Lift the damp cardboard, carpet or bedding that you use to cover your composter and place a strip of banana soft side down. The worms will come to dine.
My understanding is that the Red Wriggler worms, also known by their formal name “Eisenia fetida” don't eat the food scraps – that bacteria break down the food scraps and that the worms eat the bacteria.
My understanding is that the Red Wrigglers don’t have teeth; that the common garden worm (the one you see stranded on the footpath after a rain storm) does have teeth, and can chew on the leaves it drags down into its burrow.
Once you think about it, if the bacteria can't break down your food scraps, then the worms can't help at all.
Consider foam plastic trays: bacteria don't eat polystyrene foam, so the worms don't get to help get rid of the polystyrene foam trays.
Consider apple cores: bacteria do break down apple cores, so worms can help.
Think "bacteria", it will explain a great deal.
People have different goals in approaching vermicomposting. You may find yourself described here:
You
This book is a record of personal experience and beliefs; this is a record of an amateur who developed an interest in composting and vermicomposting.
Second, the approach is geared directly at "Things you can do at home, in your apartment, in your cold-climate apartment". You don't need acres of land or even six square feet in the backyard. You can use this site to vermicompost in your one-room of the boarding-house. Honest!
Third, I ask for no long-term commitment from you. You can read a self-contained page of this site in about a minute, and you'll have enough to think about for the rest of the day.
Fourth, and perhaps most important, you'll end up feeling good about yourself in a very special way.
