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Old 10-15-2010, 06:41 PM   #1
Gymnarnemia

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Default Waste not...want not
I saw this article, and thought it was interesting.... and could be very helpful if adapted in more areas.



Waste Not: Can One Dog Poop-Powered Lamp Spark a Revolution?


By Susan Israel | September 24, 2010 5:14 PM




When Matthew Mazzotta visited a Cambridge, MA, dog park with a friend, he noticed the trash can stuffed with bags of poop.

The sight sparked inspiration; Mazzotta, an M.I.T. graduate, had been studying methane digesters for several years.

On a trip to India he even watched people fuel methane stoves with dog doo to make chai tea.

"With every bag of poop you tie off, you're cutting off its supply of oxygen and thus making a mini methane digester," explains Mazzotta.
This revelation led to his Park Spark Project, a gas-burning lamppost powered by the first Dog Park Methane Digester in the United States.
Basically, people at the park are prompted to use biodegradable bags supplied on site to pick up their dog's poop and deposit it into a big tank. As people put dog waste into this digester tank, it fills up to the level of an outlet pipe and then overflows into an overflow tank, thus keeping the digester tank at a constant level.

The small pipe coming off the digester brings the methane to the gas-burning lamppost. And then there was light! Although the installation in Pacific St. Park is temporary, Mazzotta plans to bring it to six different cities in 2011.

Why Dog Doo is a Big Deal
For those not lucky enough to have a methane digester to light your way, at least not yet, that's no reason not to be conscientious about cleaning up after your pet in an eco-friendly way.
It's estimated that dog owners fail to pick up over 4 million tons of dog waste annually.
Twenty to thirty percent of all pollutants in waterways can be attributed to dog waste; pollutants originating from rainwater run-off via sewer systems, and dogs pooping near watersheds or beaches. Dog waste is believed to be third or fourth on the list of contributors to bacteria in contaminated waters.

Finding Better Bags
Many commercial bags, even those advertised as "biodegradable" fail to adhere to biodegradable standards, especially California law SB 1749, which defines biodegradable as being able to degrade at the rate of an apple with no plastic bits left behind. The law also prohibits the sale of plastic bags within the state which are labeled "compostable," "degradable" or "biodegradable" unless the bags conform to standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials.

Several companies do sell biodegradable, compostable bags for picking up after your pooch.

Companies like BioBag and PoopBags.com provide bags and dispensers for use in shelters and parks (including the Park Spark Project), pet-friendly campgrounds and hotels, apartment/condo complexes and doggie daycares as well as selling directly to consumers.
Poopbags.com president, Paul Cannella, used to pick up his dog May's poop with plastic grocery bags, bags from the newspaper, sandwich bags, whatever was handy, "then I started looking around and I saw how bad plastic bags were for the environment."

After testing different materials - including a film that unfortunately melted when it rained - Cannella chose the final product that launched Poopbags.com. While biodegradable bags might be a little more expensive than plastic ones, "it amounts to the cost of about one latte a month," says Cannella.

Community Matter(s)
In Ithaca, N.Y., several dog walkers who frequented Allan H.Treman Marine State Park noticed that the dumpsters were overflowing with bags of dog poop.

Members of the Tompkins County Dog Owners Group initiated efforts to turn the dog park into a dog waste-composting park.

Composting began in late spring 2009. "We bought biodegradable bags and dispensers and educated people to pick up after their dog, making sure they used our bags," says Leon Kochian, a professor of plant biology at Cornell University.

People use roughly 5,000 bags a month. And once a week, Cayuga Compost picks up the bags, weighing roughly 250 lbs.
What was once six tons of dog waste was reduced to what looks like a small pick up truck load.

After the material is tested later this year to make sure there are no pathogens that could cause illness if released back into the community, "Our hope is that it will be nutrient-rich and pathogen-free and can be sold as a fundraiser to benefit the Tompkins County Dog Owners Group," says Bruce Stoff, communications manager for the Ithaca Visitors Bureau. "It's nice that a little town can do six tons of it, but what about a big city?"

http://www.petside.com/wellness/wast...revolution.php
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Old 10-15-2010, 07:29 PM   #2
provigil

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That's really cool!

On another note though...I kinda don't understand how anyone can take the "eco footprint" of dog poop seriously. Animals poop. Granted...dogs exist because of us...but still.

I keep picturing people getting all bent out of shape about the amount of whale urine in our oceans, or duck shit in our lakes.

Don't forget our springs! Our pure, fresh water springs in Florida are being contminated by the feces of the thousands of manatees that congregate here in the winter.


That's not to say that we shouldn't do everything in our considerable power to reduce the waste of the animals we keep. I just think it's funny when articles bust out these numbers on how much of a percentage of what polution is made of dog crap.

I mean, when not given any basis of comparison...it can make the problem seem way worse than it is.

Did they also study numbers for, say...pigeon crap in New York City?
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Old 10-15-2010, 10:48 PM   #3
Gymnarnemia

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They didn't mention pigeon poop, but that and a few other things I can think of, they should.
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