Carbon Paw Prints

It wasn’t so long ago that we didn’t even pick up after our dogs. In the U.S., we’ve made a lot of progress in cleaning up after our estimated 77 million pups but now we need to figure out what to do with the mess. With this many dogs, we’re talking about thousands of tons of dog poop being produced, picked up and thrown away in plastic bags every day that goes straight to landfills. It’s the smellier side of our love affair with man’s best friend. It’s also a significant environmental blight. But today on Sea Change Radio, we’re going to hear from some folks whose innovative project is eliminating this elimination problem. First we speak with Mark Wittig, of Cayuga Compost, whose company is taking dog waste from a nearby dog park in Ithaca, NY and composting it. Then, we speak to Leon Kochian, a professor of plant biology at Cornell University and the President of TCDOG, a local dog owners association in Ithaca that started the program. Last, we talk to Dave Williams, President of BioBagUSA, the  maker of the biodegradable plastic bags that are being used for the project.