What Do YOU Do With Doo Doo?
What a lot of people do do (sorry, couldn’t resist) is put the stuff in plastic bags then toss it in the trash.
Well there are some other options worth mentioning.
The topic of ‘what to do with doggy doo doo’ came to mind this morning while reading an article in The Suburban.
Apparently some engineering students at Montreal’s Concordia University have come up with an interesting mechanized composting unit that is being tested at the popular N.D.G Park dog run.
This location was already more environmentally conscious than many, having experimented with the use of normal backyard composting units to handle the park’s dog waste. The problem, it seems, resulted from the large amounts of rocks and gravel that tended to get thrown in as well.
The old method, which was put in place following a student project about three years ago, involved shoveling dog waste into one of several composters set up around the dog run. However, since the run is covered in river rock, the rocks and pebbles that inevitably get scooped up along with the poop wind up in the composter and must be separated in order for the process to work.
Volunteers don gloves and grind the contents of the bins through a chicken coop mesh until all the rocks are gone, a process that Fares estimates takes two people roughly six hours to complete for one composter.
A team of fourth year mechanical engineering students took on the task of solving the problem as a university project. The result is a motorized composter that automatically filters rock from the compost and does regular churning, which is needed in the composting process.
Full article: Don’t throw that doggie doo away
If you want to learn more, here is another article as well: Engineers go to the dogs for park
I really hope this trial works out and that this sort of system is set up in parks across the country (and world for that matter).
Given the number of dog owners in North America alone (sorry - no stats for you, but I know it must be many millions), it’s safe to say that the environmental impact of dog waste (not to mention total pet waste) must be pretty significant. I can imagine that all those little plastic bags of doo doo take up a lot of (stinky) space in our landfills, while those left as lawn ornaments simply contribute to the N-rich run-off going into our local water bodies.
Of course, I would never suggest that people should start tossing the stuff in their regular backyard composter - especially given the fact that most yard composters do not reach the temperatures required to kill off nasties.
That being said, why not create your own separate ‘doo doo pit’? I don’t have a dog myself, but this is something I’m thinking about doing with some of my cats’ litter waste (not the litter itself of course).
Simply dig a hole in your yard, well away from vegetable gardens etc (perhaps in the vicinity of a large bush or tree). Make sure the location is a good distance from any body of water. I’d definitely recommend lining the bottom of the hole with a very thick layer of shredded cardboard/paper, fall leaves, or peat moss (although I try to limit my use of this material). You’ll definitely want some sort of lid - preferably something that a young child won’t be able to move.
Of course, to simplify matters, you could easily just set up a separate backyard composter devoted entirely to pet waste. I would still recommend digging a pit beneath it, and adding a LOT of carbon rich material to help balance out all the N in the waste and also to help keep things oxygenated.
Every time you add more poop be sure to add more carbon-rich material, and perhaps even a little bit of water during hotter summer months. Once this system has been working for a few months you might even want to add in some composting worms - they will definitely help speed up the process.
This still raises the question - ’so what am I supposed to do while out walking the dog?’
If you are deadset on using plastic bags, you can simply empty the contents into your doo doo bin when you get home then throw out the bag itself. Or you can try out one of the various biodegradeable bags on the market, such as the “BioBag“, which you can toss into the bin along with the treats inside!
Technorati Tags: pet waste, composting, compost bin, compost tumbler, doo doo, worm composting, backyard composting, dog waste, biodegradable, biobag
Written by Bentley on April 12th, 2007 with
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