You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Doggie Poo & Loo' category.
On the 12th of July 2008 I wrote a post titled ‘What to do with dog poo?’.
This post was about how we were going to recycle our dog poo (and with two dogs, believe me when I say we have a dog poo factory at our house).
Now moving ahead to the 19th of October 2008, I bought some new plants back home from the nursery. These plants were replanted in larger pots with potting mix and the dog poo that had EM Bokashi sprinkled on it (again read the post ‘What to do with dog poo’ for more info).
Here are photographs I took on that day:
Today over four months along, I took another photograph of that same plant:
Wow our garden pot plants love the dog poo. As the soil level of pot plants need to be replenished, we top up with a mixture of potting mix and dog poo (sprikled with EM Bokashi powder).
For more help or advice with EM Bokashi powder or Bokashi bins have a look at Bokashi composting in Australia’s blog.
If you take a sneak peak at the statistics of each individual post on my website you will discover something a little strange.
The overall top posts in regards to how many hits (different from the daily top posts which I display on the left hand side) are all to do with dog poo! Funny hey?!?
It is been awhile so here is an update on our household dog poo and what we do to recycle it.
Currently I am scoping up the poo and placing inside a bucket with a lid. I do this daily then sprinkle ‘EM Bokashi’ over the top (about a handful). For more information on why I am doing this please read ‘what to do with dog poo’ post.
Since I have been doing this we have noticed that there is no really bad smell in the bucket. The previous bad smell has been replaced with a vinaigrette type fragrance. The bucket is kept outside which used to attracted lots of flies (even with the lid on) but now we are adding ‘EM Bokashi’ the files are not flying around the bucket anymore.
Very soon I plan to burry the dog waste in the large plant pots around our home.
As regular readers will know, we live in the inner city of Sydney. We are lucky to have a reasonably large back courtyard (no grass) where the dogs are kept. This means we are able to have large pots. But what if you live in a unit with no real option of burring dog waste?
I think I have finally come up with a solution (feel free to judge my thinking). Try scoping up the doggie poo in those biodegradable doggie bags then sprinkle ‘EM Bokashi’ over the poop.
Then tie the bag up tight so no air can get in, which will make it an anaerobic brake down process (without air). Apparently ‘EM Bokashi’ neutralises the methane and hence is not emitted into the atmosphere if brake down is anaerobic
You then could burry the bags in a family or friend neighbour’s yard. Or if have no other option then you could put into the garbage bin (because you will not be adding to the landfill methane problem).
I am really interested to know my readers thoughts on this one. J
It has been interesting to view the statistics on each post. By the far the most popular post has been ‘Doggie Poo Loo’.
As a recap on this post, I decided that it would not be the best option to add our dog poo to our worm farm. So we have been scoping it up and placing in a bucket with a lid and then once a week burring it in the garden.
I have read so many blogs and websites on this issue. I was concerned and confused with the suggestion that burring dog poo in your garden (what we were doing) is better than placing the waste straight into your garbage bin to be taken to landfill. Isn’t both processes anaerobic (without air) brake down and this produces methane? We know methane is a greenhouse gas.
Often we can feel better about the environment knowing we are doing something but I struggled with the idea that I was just creating my own little personal methane producing landfill at home.
So this is what I have decided to do now:
I will continue to scop the dog poo up into a bucket with a lid as before but now will sprinkle EM Bokashi powder over the waste each time I add new dog waste. Then burry the dog poo when the bucket is full.
What is EM Bokashi?
“EM Bokashi is a pleasant smelling product made using a combination of sawdust and bran that has been infused with Effective Micro-organisms (EM). EM Bokashi has traditionally been used to increase the microbial diversity and activity in soils and to supply nutrients to plants.” *
Why do I think adding EM Bokashi over dog waste is better?
1) Apparently EM Bokashi neutralises the methane and hence is not emitted into the atmosphere.
2) Burying waste next to plants without EM will mean the waste will produce methane which apparently can harm or kill your plants.
3) Waste brake down with EM is apparently quicker.
From my current understanding, using EM will mean that our dog waste will no longer create methane when it brakes down and hence I will no longer have a personal landfill at home.
I believe this will be a better way of dealing with dog poo than what I was currently doing.
* Resource ‘Bokashi Composting Australia’
I am receiving many emails from friends and family about my attempts to live greener. This email from my friend and fellow photographer Laura I just had to publish. I have added below, her photograph of the very LARGE worm she is talking about. Cheers Laura.
“Hello Lovely Sarhn,
Sorry this has taken a while, but I have been thinking of you and your doggie poo! And my own doggie poo – and where it has been going.
I have been asking around…
Angela (Sister) has heard from a couple of sources that worms will vacate fairly quickly if poop is introduced to their farm.
My extremely green and hip neighbour Barb, recommends a separate container dug into the ground. It should be covered with soil and moved more regularly than compost farm.
The day your email arrived, I found a GIANT WORM in my garage! I have attached a photo. Apparently they only surface when they are looking for love. They are very slow and don’t wriggle around like a little worm. He was amazing.
I love the ‘Greener Me’ site and will investigate it more.
I am hugely into the PALM OIL awareness campaigns, and the protection of Orangutans. 2 years left for the Sumatran Orangutans if we don’t act now…
Isn’t that hideous. I guess it includes the Sumatran Tiger and Elephant, amongst others. All for PALM OIL el cheapo that we are all consuming.
http://www.palmoilaction.org.au/
Check them out – and add to your links if you like.
Cheers Sarhn,
Laura xx”
My posts so far have been setting the scene for ‘Greener Me’. A way of explanation and background to why I started my ‘Greener Me’ blog.
If you are reading this today the 2nd of June 2008 – thankyou! Thank you because you are joining me on my ‘Greener Me’ journey from the beginning.
This last week I have been away for work in Brisbane (Australia) and I am missing very much my husband and our two small fluffy puppies ‘Mini’ and ‘Cooper’ (aka the babies).
Before we brought home our puppies, my husband and I discussed ideas on training and the environmental issues with dog ownership. Ironically both topics revolved around doggie poo!
For the first two days after bringing our puppy’s home, we were stressed out new parents. To make life easier, we flushed their number two’s down the loo. Our thinking was their dog poo could be treated along with human waste at treatment plants before being released into the water system.
This was never going to be a long term solution as it is just gross and potentially unhygienic for humans. So for the next four weeks with a small, hand, garden spade we scooped up and buried their number two’s in our large pot plants and small garden court yard. However we found the time it took to do this twice a day, was not the greatest time management strategy.
A temporary solution was to place the regular ‘doggy poo scope ups’ in a bucket, then once a week burry them. I do know that dog waste contains large amounts of bacteria such as Escherichia Coli (E.Coli) and Salmonella which are washed into waterways and oceans, causing contamination and potential human infections. Also Parasites such as Hookworm and Roundworm can live for years in soil where dog poo has been left to degrade, leading to further animal or human infection.
Burring the waste may be better than leaving it on the grass to decompose but I am not sure how much better it is. Does anyone have thoughts on this?
What I think we will have to do is start a small worm farm for our doggie poo. We actually already have a worm farm for our house hold waste (food scrapes etc). However I didn’t think it was a good idea to be putting doggie fertiliser waste on our plants that produce food that we will consume (e.g. our lemon tree). Not sure on the facts but knowing that parasites can live for years in soil, it probably is a no brainier.
One tip I have just learnt is not to put dog poo in the worm farm straight after the dogs have been wormed. The worming medication will kill the worms.
So here we are at the decision to purchase a 2nd worm farm. I welcome any ideas, thoughts or facts before I go out and do this.
Sarhn
Thank you to this article for which I gained my knowledge.
Blog Chatter