Poop news is big news, so this press release out of the BPCA caught my attention right quick. The authority has started a pilot program to compost the dog waste collected — or should I say contributed — at its three dog runs: at the North End Avenue Island, “Sirius” at Kowsky Plaza and at the south end of West Thames Park. Here’s how it will work (you can also watch a video below!):
1. Your dog poops.
2. You use the available scooper to pick it up OR scoop it into a PAPER (not plastic) bag.
3. You deposit it into the marked collection bin next to the trash can.

Et voila!

The bins will be emptied and cleaned daily (sheesh, whose job is that??) and taken to the BPCA’s parks operations central dog waste composting unit. Now, this is separate from the authority’s organic composting, just fyi, to which you CANNOT add feces. This will be heated to 140-160 degrees, which kills pathogens, and then the staff will add carbon in the form of wood chips and sawdust and tinker with the mixture to find the right balance of carbon and nitrogen to convert the dog waste into compost. (It’s like a composting toilet, essentially.)

The authority estimates that about 75 pounds of dog waste are produced daily in the dog runs, and if you do the math, that’s 3.5 tons of waste each year. The compost program means reduced methane gases as well as reduced numbers of plastic bags. I don’t know how they will actually do this without gagging, but it certainly sounds like a worthy effort.