Tuesday, July 7, 2009

What to do with dog poo? Oh, what to do?

Write about dog poo? I have to.

I admit, it’s my fault. I didn’t anticipate a poo-related response to an earlier post in which I said the smell of garbage in The Village after a long weekend reminded me we throw out so much stuff, more than we’ll ever know (though our children will) because we bury or burn it... and our lifestyles definitely need to shrink.

A reader said:

“I guess there are some benefits to having a poor sense of smell! Our village is collecting compost to see if we can gather enough biomass to become self-sustaining. We compost, but ever since this project has started, seems like the only thing in our garbage now is little black bags of dog poo. Got any suggestions for that?”

[Normally, I’d respond on my blog’s comment page but several functions aren’t functioning properly at this thyme.]

I don’t have any suggestions at this time but I do have questions.

Isn’t poo a biomass? Poo can be composted, can it not? Would it have to be composted separately from food scraps? Doesn’t some poo create a gas that can be burned as fuel? Will we only explore the hidden values of poo once fossil fuels become a bit more scarce? Won’t that be too late? The habit of flushing our poo into fresh waterways raises even more questions, doesn’t it?

An odd post, I now, but I’d be interested in any answers.

***

Does anyone have a composting toilet? Is that the way of the future?

I’d post a picture of one if could, but I can’t.

.

1 comment:

Kathleen said...

My son the Earth Doctor says we absolutely cannot put animal product in the compost. AND he tells us we really should buy a composting toilet. Now I'm totally confused. Sure hope someone comes up with the answer

~:^D

Kathleen