Dog poo from Cape Town beaches grows trees

Dog poo from Cape Town beaches grows trees

The Scarborough Environmental Group collects dog poop at beaches and uses it to create compost for planting trees.  The group’s education head Hannah Hopper said anything that was organic could be composted and dog poo was no exception.

“The benefits of using dog poop are twofold. First, less waste ends up going to landfill< said Hopper. “This is good because we have a landfill crisis and organic matter like dog poo contributed to leeched and methane gas pollution, which is 20 times more warming than carbon dioxide.”

“Secondly, we are turning free “waste” into a useful resource for planting indigenous trees.“

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South Australia pet lovers find win-win solution

An innovative group of dog lovers from Port Elliot, South Australia, recently teamed up with pet researcher Dr. Janette Young from the University of South Australia.

The team devised a 12-week project to trial green waste collection at their local dog park, survey dog owner attitudes, behavior and poo practices, and educate pet owners about compostable bags and home composting.

In collaboration with Alexandrina Council, compostable dog bag dispensers were installed at the park along with a dedicated poo bin, picked up weekly by a green organic truck.

Here’s the full story.

Halifax to pilot dog waste compost program at a local park

Halifax – which already collects pet waste as part of its residential green bin program – will be trying something new according new in 2021.

The details are still being worked out, but a dog waste composting pilot project scuttled by the pandemic could soon move ahead as more people — and more dog poop — fill local trails and parks.

“We are going to try a trial hopefully at some point this year. COVID’s been a bit of a challenge there,” Kirk Symonds, team lead-education and program delivery with HRM Solid Waste Resources, said in an interview.

“What we’re going to do is we’re going to take a park somewhere in HRM and we’re going to set up bins that are specifically for dog feces, and that’s going to make it easier for us to actually compost it.”

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Before initiating pet waste composting pilot programs, the Nova Scotia Resource Recovery Fund Board commissioned a study to ensure viability and safety. Here is a summary.

“Evaluation of cat litter and dog feces (CLDF) as compost feedstock reveals that this material is suitable. It does not contain excessive sodium, contains low levels of plant nutrients and contributes beneficially to the water holding capacity of compost. Current pathogen standards can be met for CLDF composting if required temperatures are achieved. Pharmaceutical residue issues in CLDF are similar to those for biosolids and animal manure composting which greatly reduce their concentrations. There are no compelling reasons to not compost CLDF based on the chemical and biological aspects of the material.

“A consideration of current practices in Nova Scotia reveals that the one facility that does compost CLDF has encountered no problems associated with processing it or meeting pathogen standards”

https://divertns.ca/assets/files/CLDF-REPORT.pdf

London, Ont. considers allowing dog waste in green bins

Four-legged Londoners just might be in luck.

After years of debate and a pandemic-driven delay to London’s green bin program, city hall is finally charging ahead – weighing up the options to build a curbside compost program in the largest Ontario city without one.

One of the key questions left to answer about the future green bin system is whether pet poop – which makes up a whopping 10 per cent of London’s trash – should be allowed in the compost.

Here’s the scoop.

Battery Park City: from zero thought to zero waste

When Ryan Torres, Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) assistant VP of Parks Operations, said, “We should compost the dog waste from the runs,” at an all-staff meeting, everyone was taken aback, but nobody was skeptical.

After the initial shock and disbelief, the proposal that Torres made last summer started making sense to the staff. The staff spent a week collecting data to back up her idea, so she came to the table prepared.

Here’s the scoop.

Composting program at Great Bark Dog Park in Lafayette, Colorado

The Lafayette Parks, Recreation & Open Space Department, in collaboration with the Lafayette Waste Reduction Committee, is pleased to announce the launch of a pilot dog waste composting program at the Great Bark Dog Park. Dog waste can be challenging for communities to deal with, and most of it ends up in landfills where it contributes to emissions from methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Nationwide, pet dogs produce over 10 million tons of poop each year, and Lafayette wants to do what we can to minimize our contribution. More to bark about.

Vancouver considers anaerobic digestion to tackle dog waste

Currently, dog waste is collected in plastic bags that do not quickly or easily break down, so diverting the waste from landfill has become a priority for the city. Vancouver is considering a contracted service or partnership to tackle dog waste using automated waste de-bagging with methods to separate the waste from bags for processing, direct injection into the city sewage system for processing at waste plants, anaerobic digestion or composting.

Here’s the scoop.

Comparative Analysis of Dog Waste Processing Methods for Metro Vancouver

Ottawa hopes more residents will use green carts if dog poop is accepted

Ottawa residents may begin dumping dog feces, cat litter and plastic bags filled with organic waste into their green bins starting on July 2, 2019. The inclusion of plastic bags and pet waste in the municipal composting program has been in the works for months, after the last city council approved the change in late March 2018.

The city hopes the change will incentivize more households to participate in the green bin program. Heavier use of green bins “will divert more organic materials from the landfill and significantly extend its life,” according to the municipality.

According to a study commissioned by the city, just over 60 per cent of respondents said they were more likely to use the green bins after plastic bags and dog waste were permitted.

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A contract between the city and its waste hauler, Orgaworld, included dog waste and plastic in its residential green bin program. Items in green bins are diverted from the landfill and streamed to the company’s compost site. The agreement states that diapers will still be sent to the dump. But that possibly doesn’t align with provincial plans, with Ontario eyeing a move to get diapers out of the regular waste stream as early as 2022. Read the full story.

How Edmonton turns your dog doodie into industrial-strength compost

For nearly a decade, the City of Edmonton has been turning dog poop into compost. With an estimated 150,000 dogs in the city, there’s a heap of the stuff to process.

“We process the cat poop a little bit differently, because it has different pathogens that are difficult to address,” said Jawad Farhad, general supervisor for organic processing and management. “But generally dog poop is much easier for us to deal with.”

“We are not the only ones who do this. A lot of municipalities do allow for the composting of dog poop.”

In Edmonton, once poop is placed in the trash, there is a “whole system of checks and balances” to make sure it stays out of the landfill, Farhad said.

“We want to divert as much waste as possible, whether it’s organic or non-organic,” he said. “Once it’s made safely into a compost, the nutrients can go back in the land and be put to good use.” 

Here’s the scoop.