This week, I am indebted to Mr Myerson from Goring who has drawn my attention to a novel way of dealing with dog muck that is being trialled in San Francisco.

The city authorities have decided to put the thousands of tonnes of dog waste collected each year to good use.

Firstly, the bags used by dog walkers are to change from plastic to biodegradable material so that the waste can then be fed through an anaerobic digester.

This process is used to deal with human waste and on farms, to help stabilise the waste and generate methane.

The methane is used for many applications, such as heating or generating electricity.

The dog waste will be mixed with food scraps already being collected from domestic properties and restaurants.

As it is protein rich, it is hoped it will help generate more methane than has been possible with food waste alone.

Considering that approximately four per cent of the total waste being landfilled from San Francisco is dog waste, it is easy to see why the city authorities are motivated to eliminate it from their sites and do something more useful with it.

Interestingly, while this initiative is being heralded as innovatory in the western world, if you look at some developing countries, many small villages have anaerobic digesters for all their organic waste.

Animal droppings, whether from cattle, sheep, dogs or cats, are all dealt with through the digester.

This can provide an important energy source for the village as well as being a convenient waste disposal facility.

In the coming decades as fossil fuel reserves start to diminish, organic waste products will become an increasingly important source of energy.

It is likely that small scale anaerobic digestion plants will become more economically viable if the feedstock is guaranteed.

Dog owners could find themselves in the unlikely position of providing some of the raw material for these plants.


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