EnviroWagg : dog poop compost, dog waste compost, carbon paw print

In spite of its image as a haven for environmentalists and green company start-ups, Colorado is among the lowest 20% of states when it comes to recycling. One big reason for this is that landfill space is plentiful and disposal fees are low. In late 2007 the state adopted a Climate Protection Plan to facilitate the adoption of carbon reduction practices in Colorado. This strategy designates solid waste diversion an integral part in the state's master plan to apply the brakes to global warming. Many Colorado municipalities, companies and nonprofit organizations are taking the initiative by implementing and expanding local recycling programs.

The fact that 39% of Colorado's two million households own at least one dog is a testament to the high value residents place on canine companionship. The downside of dog ownership is disposing of the waste. Colorado's 780,000 dogs generate an average of ¾ lb. of waste per day each. That translates into 585,000 lbs (292.5 tons) per day and 213,525,000 lbs. (106,762.5 tons) per year.

In metropolitan areas, approximately 60% of dog waste is thrown into the trash and 40% left on the ground. Colorado has 19 cities with populations greater than 30,000. The dogs in those cities alone stream more than 52,000 tons of waste into landfills.

The Statue of Liberty weighs 225 tons. So ton-for-ton, the amount of dog waste trashed by Colorado's 19 latgest cities each year is equal to 230 Statues of Liberty!

How does this quantity stack up other recovered materials?

In 2006 Colorado disposed of 34,000 tons of #1 and #2 plastics. Recycling programs diverted 20% of this material from landfills (Analysis of 2006 Colorado Waste Stream - Initial Findings, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Pollution Prevention Advisory Board, January 22, 2008).

Nationally, 78 million dogs in the U.S. generate 10.6 million tons of waste each year. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, Americans waste 34 million tons of food annually. The EPA reposts that it costs the U.S. around $1 billion each year just to dispose of all its food waste. The food scraps recovery rate is 3%.

"Recycling" is a process that changes or reconditions an item that is no longer useful back into the system for further use. Much of recycling is "downcycling," that is, turning the material into a substance with less value that it originally possessed. Plastics and mixed metals are examples of items commonly downcycled. That's not the case with organic materials, which can be easily upcycled.

"Upcycling" is a process that transforms the item into something more valuable than it was at the start. An upcycled material not only pays back, but pays back with interest!

In 2006 San Francisco launched a program to upcycle its dog waste into an alternative energy source. At the time, the city planned to deposit tons of the material into an anaerobic digester, which uses bacteria to convert organic waste into methane gas. The gas is then captured and burned to produce energy in the form of electricity and natural gas. (The Park Spark Project at Pacific Street Park in Cambridge, Massachusetts provides a nice demonstration of how this works.)

A Bay Area trash audit found that area dogs produced an estimated 6,500 tons of waste - nearly 4% of total landfill waste - every year. This project was initiated to help the city reach its goal of diverting 75 percent of its waste from landfills by 2010 and achieve zero landfill waste by 2020. The city suspended this program and is now focusing on food scraps. In November 2011 Recology, Inc. picked up its one millonth ton of food scraps through San Francisco's composting program.

But communities diverting organics with a goal of zero waste will eventually need to find a sustainable solution to disposing of dog waste. The US produces approximately 30 tons of food waste per year and 10 tons of dog waste.

The Denver Zoo is currently testing a biomass gasification system that will convert the park's solid waste (including tons of animal waste) into usable, renewable energy. This program will save the zoo thousands of dollars annually and provide a model project for public facilities.

An easy, low-cost way to upcycle organic material is to simply compost it. To work its magic, composting requires only biologically derived matter, air, a bit of warmth, moisture, hungry organisms, and a person skilled at the practice. Composting dog waste is a creative and elegant solution to an inelegant dilemma.