Paws Up to the Denver Zoo; I barked about their Poop-to-Power project in Doggone Green. Now, they win my Doggone Green Crusader On-the Move honor for being the 1st zoo in the U.S. to be acknowledged for its super duper environmental management program. I say how cool is that? The designation was given by some big-wig international group of humans for getting things right for a change. I say it’s about time!

I am still excited about the zoo’s Poop-to-Power research. Their Asian elephants, Mimi and Dolly who weigh 10,100 and 7,600 pounds, respectively and who each produce 75-100 pounds of waste every day may be able to help the zoo trim energy bills and trips to the landfill. At present, Mimi and Dolly’s poop and the other zoo animal waste are being sent to the landfill. The way I look at it; when you add up the zoo’s creature waste and Denver’s entire cat and dog population’s poop–all trucked to the landfills–you can imagine the zoo’s gasification power plant would be poop-ular. I congratulate the zoo for its planning.

They might want to look into a contraption made in Texas that works deep in the bowels of a landfill; a super powerful garbage-eating machine called the the PowerMaster ReCycloneTM. It works like the wind inside a tornado, grinding garbage into tiny pieces. Technology like this has the potential to close down city landfills. That’s a good thing as landfill costs are rising and space is disappearing. The grinder turns waste into compost or energy.

In San Francisco, where 4% of residential waste is dog poop, the city decided to put the stinky stuff to work. Turning our poop into electricity is a groovy thing. Imagine reducing our paw-print by pumping out stinkers? Of course by bovine friends have been running farm machinery off of their manure for years. These days bigger and bigger projects are being built around the country to power homes. The government is catching on too with a plan to offer pocketbook credits. Imagine; a cleaner environment and more jobs all compliments of animal poop.

Lots of ground-breaking stuff is happening in the recycling world. I always say find places to recycle trash into cash for a cause. Find a local group and take your recycles there—paper, aluminum, glass, plastic and steel. This is also a good time to remind pet’s ‘n their people that composting organic kitchen waste is not hard. Use worms or start a compost pile when the weather gets warmer.

Stay in Touch,

Cedar

cedar@petsgonegreen.com

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