Posts tagged "compost"

It's not often that being a responsible pet owner is profitable, but some dog owners in Ithaca, N.Y. have found a way to make that happen (and clean up their dog park in the process).

The Tompkins County Dog Owner Group has teamed up with Cayuga Compost to find a useful solution for all the poo left behind in the city's dog park, reports the Associated Press. Considering some 50,000 dogs visit the park throughout the year (leaving about 1,000 pounds of waste monthly), it only made sense that the group not only wanted to find the best way to rid the park of the waste, but make money doing it.

Leon Kochian, a spokesman for TC DOG (the not-for-profit volunteer group involved in funding the project), biology professor at Cornell University and owner of a yellow Labrador retriever, told the Associated Press, "There was a large Dumpster at the park, and it was just always overflowing with plastic bags of dog poop. The amount was unbelievable."

So sure, it makes sense to compost the doggy doo. But why hasn't this been done before? The Associated Press reports that, according to an assistant program director for the U.S. Composting Council, dog and cat waste isn't suitable to use for vegetable gardens and topsoil because of parasites and pathogens.