Recycle This

I am so yesterday's news with my dog-waste-management updates, but I just read that San Francisco, green city by the bay, has been working on converting local dog poop into a renewable energy source. That's right. Apparently the city did a study last year and discovered that S.F. pet poop made up nearly four percent of local residential household waste (which translates into 6,500 tons a year). That's a lot of poop.

So Norcal Waste, San Francisco's waste-management contractor, came up with this strategy (via Inhabit):

The pet poop is first put into an anaerobic digester, which uses bacteria to convert organic waster into methane gas. Burning that gas produces energy in the form of electricity, natural gas, and liquefied natural gas. This gas is then captured and used to power equipment that normally runs on natural gas, such as a kitchen stove or a heater. The two-week-long "digestion process" also produces valuable compost for agriculture.

For starters, Norcal put up dog-waste collection carts with biodegradable bags around Duboce Park, a popular dog destination in the Lower Haight neighborhood (and a block from my old flat!). Awesome.

I gotta move back there.

Inhabit