Cedar Dog and her transcriber, Kathy Deitsch & Rose Seemann of Envirowagg, LLC teamed up to speak at the annual Colorado Association of Recyclers conference in June 2011. Their topic, Challenging Materials and Emerging Technologies; the presentation was entitled, It’s Time to Make a Hullabaloo about Pet Poo!

Imagine 75 million dogs and 93 million cats producing billions of tons of waste a year; the City of San Francisco estimates pet feces to be just about 4 percent of their city’s residential waste. Typically, pet waste goes to landfills inside plastic bags where it becomes almost a permanent part of the landscape for generations.

Cedar Dog and her transcriber launched their Poop-to-Power awareness campaign in 2009 after they published their second book, Doggone Clean and Green: Eco-Solutions for a Pet’s Daily Life. The goal of the crusade; search out, develop new end products and push for more environmental projects to make it obvious that “we can and we must do better” by upcycling pet, animal and yes, human waste.

Left unmanaged pet waste pollutes waterways. What solutions exist for pet droppings and cat litter? What are pet parents, waste companies, cities, and states to do? Is methane digestion—low-tech machines using bacteria to convert poop to power—the solution? Dairy farmers have been converting animal waste to power farm machinery for years. Now days, the waste also provides renewable energy to power large farming operations. Cedar likes to say, “My bovine friends have been contributing to a ‘greener’ planet for several decades.”

What about large scale composting beyond the backyard? Seemann’s company is a pilot project that composts dog waste into DOGGONE GOOD COMPOST®, a safe, nutrient-rich soil amendment that greens up gardens.

Pets Gone Green and Envirowagg are two of the major players in an alliance, that includes one of the country’s largest Pet Scoop Services business, to bring Park Spark to an off-leash dog park to Colorado. In March, the group  partnered with Denver D.O.G. to make Park Spark Denver a reality. An application for funding to the Colorado Recycling Grant Program (RREO) was submitted. Although funds were not granted the project and its supporters work to be the first, permanent year-round project of its kind. The very first Park Spark project was launched in Cambridge, MA as a months-long arts council project. The creator, artist Matthew Mazzotta, believed it would get people thinking about “not wasting waste.”

Cedar Dog insists, “stoop to scoop; stop sending pet waste to landfills and cease using plastic shopping bags for collection.” The talk focused on more sustainable backyard options for pet parents and emerging technologies worldwide.

Conference was held June 5-7, 2011
Breckenridge, Colorado
Colorado Association for Recycling Conference

Summit for Recycling

Managing resources in today’s economy

The Colorado Association for Recycling’s annual recycling Summit, in its 22nd year, is a dynamic conference and exhibition that brings together the state’s recycling professionals and individuals dedicated to the principles of recycling. The Summit agenda is complete with workshops, panel discussions, a variety of presenters, two-day exhibit hall, site tours, recycling awards, silent auction, and fun evening networking events.

Keynote Speaker

L. Hunter Lovins is President and founder of the Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS) (www.natcapsolutions.org). NCS educates senior decision-makers in business, government and civil society to restore and enhance the natural and human capital while increasing prosperity and quality of life. In partnership with leading thinkers and implementers, NCS creates innovative, practical tools and strategies to enable companies, communities, and countries to become more sustainable.