| Written by Bright Future Staff |
Problem: Most pet owners place their pets waste into the trash. When this waste is deposited into landfills it can later seep into and contaminate municipal water supplies.
Solution: Methane digesters can recycle pet waste into methane gas which can be used as a fuel for producing energy.
According to Will Brinton, an environmental scientist and director of Woods End Laboratories in Maine, dogs and cats in the US produce over 10 million tons of organic waste each year. Most of that waste ends up in public landfills. In Oakland, CA they had to close local beaches when too much pet waste ended up in the local creeks that flowed into the San Francisco Bay. The problem was significant enough to motivate several Bay Area cities to look into ways to recycle this waste.
It is estimated that one ton of dog and cat poop might produce up to 50 gallons of fuel.
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