Nandor Tanczos did not want to pose for a photo with worms in his similar shaped dreads, because he reckoned he might never get them out again.
But the worms themselves came in for a lot of praise from the Green politician yesterday.
"Be fruitful and multiply," he told ahandful as he released them into their new home at the Waitakere Special Needs Trust.
Yesterday, Mr Tanczos officially opened the trust's new charitable business - the Worm Firm - actually a worm farm with worms bred to munch and recycle all manner of organic waste, from rotting vegetables to old paper bags.
If the idea of a worm farm conjures an image of acres of land filled with billions of the wriggling invertebrates, think again.
A 20,000-strong backyard worm farm will cost around $50 a year and will take up only about a square metre.
The Worm Firm team will take care of the farm, checking the health of the worms and keeping them in prime recycling condition.
All profits will be ploughed back into the Arohanui Special School in Glendene to provide specialist care and support to disabled people and their families.
Mr Tanczos said the initiative helped change attitudes to waste.
"We have an attitude to our planet that it's a resource to be plundered. We have to realise that our waste is a resource.
"Everything we need we have already dug up. We just need to find it and reuse it."
Many people wanted to change but did not know how.
"What you are doing is offering people an answer," he said at the opening.
The worm farm is the brainchild of Brett Olsen, a consultant to the trust which fund-raises for the school.
"What we've done is work an achievable system that can be installed at home so waste never leaves your property. It can be recycled on-site."
