Mary is the co-founder, Managing Director and owner of FullCycle. She is a committed environmental activist and educator who consequently became a business woman. Mary loves her work and believes passionately in promoting the concept of sustainability with particular emphasis on waste reduction and recycling. She practices what she preaches and refuses to use a wheelie bin.  Instead she composts all organic waste using either her Can-O-Worms or Bokashi Kitchen Composter. She adopts "plastic wise" shopping in an attempt to reduce the amount used. Where plastic packaging is unavoidable Mary takes it back to the shop for them to dispose of responsibly, whilst making the point that nonbiodegradable packing should be phased out!

Mary, Mary, how does your garden grow? With Vermicompost of course!

Her various projects and activities include:

• WASTE at WORK: which uses art to communicate paper waste reduction in businesses  www.coeo.co.za/waste.

• Development of the Plastic Bag campaign, with support from former Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Mahommed Valli Moosa.

• Development of a diesel emissions campaign called Clear-the-Air.

• She has visited over 40 landfill sites in South Africa and has lead tours to landfills to raise awareness of waste.

• She conceived and presented Environmental Matters on SAfm (104-107) every Monday at 8:30pm from August 2005 to March 2007.

• She develops sustainable tools and systems for environmental monitoring and management like Emon (Environmental Monitoring), which is an SMS based application.

• She lectured a course in EE for the School of Education at the University of Cape Town.

• She helped with the launch of the Eco Schools programme in SA, and developed and supported numerous Eco Schools' nodes.

• She has worked with gang members on the Cape Flats, lead the Findings Writing team at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and facilitated conflict reduction workshops in Northern Ireland.

• Her primary focus is finding ways to embed Human Rights into Sustainable Development.

• She is an ISO 14001 SATCA certified environmental auditor.

Mary has a Masters degree in International Relations and BA (Hons) in Peace Studies. She admits that these studies have fuelled her imagination to contemplate a more earthworm like world; one with no wars, plenty of food, no over-population or crowding leading to resource depletion, extensive recycling and no leaders ........except for her (because of course a Benevolent Dictator is okay...... as long as it's you!).

She is currently studying towards her PhD in Environmental Education at Rhodes University. The latter will be written as a novel about Polo the penguin: http://www.poloandfriends.org .

Originally from Ireland, she has lived in South Africa since 1994.

	" Hey Mary! How did the Irish Blonde try to kill an earthworm? Buried it alive ! "

Phumlani arrived in Cape Town from the Eastern Cape in 2000 and has worked for FullCycle since 2007 which makes him our longest employee. He collects organic waste and tends to our earthworms keeping them well-fed and healthy. "On yer bike!" has a whole different meaning for Phumlani who collects the organic waste from the restaurants and hotel within the Noordhoek Farm Village, using a bicycle and trailer, delivering it to the worm farm for processing. By working at FullCycle he learnt more about environmental matters and recycling.  In fact he now has 6 Worm Factories at his home provided for by FullCycle.  We built a greenhouse and provided the necessary equipment to get him started. He gives the nutrient-rich vermicompost produced by his earthworms to a community garden located at the local youth centre in Masiphumele and of which he is a member.

Our man in yellow with matching bicycle (because we pay attention to detail).

Phumlani firmly believes in organic vegetable production and his vegetables are used to make soup for children. He lives in Masiphumele (a predominantly informal settlement) with his wife, 2 daughters and niece. In addition to his work with FullCycle, Phumlani also runs a bicycle recycling workshop next to his home and is a member of the Bicycle Empowerment Network (BEN). Come the Cape Argus Cycle Race he can be found by the side of the road helping to repair participant's bicycles. We support and encourage him in this endeavour and bought the FullCycle bicycle that you can see in the above photo, from him.

Mzu is a gardener for FullCycle at the Noordhoek Farm Village worm farm. He originally lived in a small village in the Eastern Cape with his grandmother who looked after the family while his mother worked in Cape Town.  After his grandmother died he could no longer continue his education and so came to Cape Town to look for work to support himself. He found work as a nursery assistant and enjoyed growing plants and other outdoor landscaping activities.  The opportunity arose to undertake a short gardening course which sparked his interest in the field. He would often go by FullCycles worm farm at  Noordhoek Farm Village and see the activities going on, which prompted him to approach FullCycle. We were impressed by his personable manner and his ability. He is proving to be a valuable member of staff and will soon be running our gardening workshops for the public.  If you are interested in attending this short practical workshop please call or e-mail our office.

Our green fingered guy ... well not literally.

Mzu likes the idea of growing things organically and enjoys working with nature. Currently we have a garden area adjacent to our worm farm on which tenants within the Farm Village have been given small door frame style allotments. The tenants send their staff to be trained by Mzu in the art of organic vegetable gardening.  The skills learned can be taken home to the wider community. Before working with FullCycle Mzu knew little about earthworms but is now fascinated by them and plans to have a Worm Factory at home. He lives in Masiphumele with his partner and small son.

Luvo, at 19 years old, is currently our newest and youngest recruit. Before working for FullCycle he had just finished school and was unemployed. He now works for us at the illustrious five-star Mount Nelson Hotel worm farm in Cape Town. He nurtures and maintains the 60 Worm Factory units that we established at the hotel in 2006. More than three years later and this facility is still going strong. Luvo is more than willing to show the many interested guests how the farm operates. Xhosa is Luvo's first language and his English isn't fluent, however we have developed a little information sheet for Luvo to hand out to visitors and Voila communication problem sorted!

Surrogate father to 800,000

On the last Friday of every month Mary Murphy visits the hotel and gives a talk about the worm farm. Please contact the Mount Nelson Hotel if you are interested in attending.  Alternatively, if you wish to make a group booking at another time or visit our Noordhoek facility please contact us here at FullCycle to make an arrangement.

George has been working for FullCycle at our Worm Farm in the Noordhoek Farm Village since September 2007. He previously worked at the local kaolin clay mine but now prefers looking after our little miners instead! He collects the organic waste from the other tenants in the Village, prepares it for the earthworms, feeds them and when the earthworms are between 1 -2 years old he weighs them (not individually) and packs them to be delivered to our customers.  1000 earthworms are approximately 250 grams.

For some reason George was unconcerned about the 6ft hungry earthworm behind him...

Originally from the Eastern Cape, George now lives in Masiphumele with his sister and her two children. He also supports his young son. Before working for FullCycle George didn't know anything about earthworms or waste issues but now he is happy to talk to our worm farm visitors and reveal the secret life of our busy earthworms. He is confident that he can answer any questions about the facility.  If you would like to see what goes on in our worm farm please contact our office to arrange a visit.

Although Christiaan is an IT audit manager by profession, and currently completing his PhD in Auditing, he is also very conscious of reducing his 'carbon footprint'.  He recycles all paper and cans at home, and he  feeds all kitchen scraps into his three "treasured Can-O-Worms".  He's even got his mother hooked on worm farming and gave her a Can-O-Worms, which she heartily adopted.

 Christiaan uses the worm castings to grow succulents.  He has lots of 'future' plans for the
 castings that he probably conjures up while out hiking and cycling.  Christiaan can always find his way back home to his wife, five-year-old son and growing family of earthworms because he never leaves home without his Garmin GPS.

So if you ever need him to come and audit your worm farm just send him your coordinates and he'll be there.  He can assist with sales and advice in the Centurion and Pretoria areas.

Christiaan can be contacted on Cell: 083 3061543 or e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Esther is a ball of energy and a whiz at making plants grow. She has been in the horticultural business for over 30 years which included managing a nursery in Tokai. Fondly known as 'Esther' she's got a [compost] HEAP of information on orchids, roses, landscaping, and indoor and outdoor plants generally.

She loves the way earthworms help plants grow and has extended her passion to our Can-O-Worms. Contact Esther for demonstrations or talks at your garden club, school or nursery, or if you would like her to deliver and set-up your Can-O-Worms. You can also chat to her at our offices, Loft 1, Noordhoek Farm Village, Noordhoek, on the last Saturday and Sunday of the month.

She charges R200 for a visit within a 20km radius of Tokai (AA rates for distances greater than 20kms).

Contact Esther: 083 290 2116 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it