Reminds me of "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" - and something that could actually work. Imagine all of the waste that is flushed each day being put to good use!
Trust California to come up with something 'new' (not so new really, but gross to most people *grin*) and non traditional.
What other unusual alternatives to our current energy sources do you think would work ... ?
quote:Pooch Poo to Power San Francisco By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
Feb. 23, 2006 — San Francisco is hoping to convert its dog dung into energy that may be able to power everything from an electricity-generating turbine to a home stove, according to Norcal Waste Systems Inc., which oversees garbage collection, recycling and disposal for San Francisco and several other Northern California cities.
San Francisco is believed to be the first U.S. city to explore the energy potential of dog feces. A pilot test program may begin within the next few months.
"The city of San Francisco has a goal of 75-percent landfill diversion by 2010 and zero waste to landfill by 2020," said Robert Reed, Norcal's spokesman. "According to a recent waste characterization study, 3.8 percent of garbage from residential collections was animal feces — mostly from dogs and cats, although other animals could have been represented."
Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but the city's estimated 240,000 cats and dogs leave calling cards of their own. Norcal has decided to focus on dog doo because it is easier to collect, since dog owners frequent certain parks and could dispose of their pets' waste in controlled receptacles.
"It's a tradition for many people to grab a newspaper, their dog's leash and a plastic bag before going on a walk," Reed told Discovery News. "They use the plastic bag to pick up his little gift."
In the future, the plastic bags likely will be made out of biodegradable materials so they won't gum up the process or have to be separated from their pungent contents. If the test phase moves forward, Norcal hopes to put a collection bin in Duboce Park, a popular San Francisco park for dog walkers. Once collected, the poo would be placed into a methane digester, which is sort of like a compost bin for dung.
I think that is way cool. In korea human feces is used to fertlize strawberry fields. Let me tell you...as gross as it sounds, those were some of the best strawberries I have tasted.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
Urea brave man, lem.
Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :
lem, that's true recycling...
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
When in Rome....
It was gross, but then you think that it isn't grosser then cow manure. Poop is poop.
Then it is gross again. Then you taste the strawberries...yummie! *wince wince* Tastey.
Posted by Advent 115 (Member # 8914) on :
I don't know about that lem... I mean have you seen what we humans eat?
(Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, Pizza, etc.)
Posted by maui babe (Member # 1894) on :
Using untreated human waste for fertilizing food crops is a really good way to spread Hepatitis A, among other diseases. The strawberries may have been tasty, but not worth it, IMO.
You may remember a large outbreak of HepA back east a year or so ago, associated with a Mexican restaurant chain. They traced it back to green onions grown in Mexico (where workers relieve themselves in the fields as they work). Dozens of people became seriously ill and at least 3 people died as a result.
Edited to add link : I was wrong, more than 600 people were sickened in this outbreak.
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
Wow. That is really cool. At first I was thinking that it must be a horribly smelly process, but apparently not:
quote:"The resulting gas does not have much smell," he said. "Sometimes there is a slight egg-like sour odor in the containerized process, but this can be easily filtered out."
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
They used human feces to fertilize in the Philippines. As a result, we washed all our produce in a chlorine solution.
Posted by Silkie (Member # 8853) on :
Whether you knew it or not, Chicken farming, pig farming, etc on a factory scale as it is done today creates a LOT of pollution. I've read that agricultural waste is very good for creating methane this way, plus the recycled waste would not pollute the environment.
After the initial investment, it might actually earn more money for the factory farm, since excess electricity generated must be purchased by the Electric company.