Dog waste anaerobic digestion scheme for Waterloo, Canada

The city of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, will soon be home to a dog waste biogas facility, according to the Huffington Post.

Dog waste from around the city will be collected and turned into energy using anaerobic digestion. It will be one of the first times such a program has been used in a Canadian city. Although already popular in smaller Canadian towns, dog waste anaerobic digestion has yet to be tested in a city of Waterloo’s size.

Special ‘receptacles’ will be set up around the city which dog owners can put their dog’s waste into instead of a regular litter bin. The dog waste bins will be bright green, with a dog-shaped opening.

"It's actually a big issue, dog waste. If you look at our municipal litter bins ... it's 40 to 80 per cent dog waste,'' Waterloo mayor Dave Jaworsky told the Huffington Post. The city has a population of about 100,000 people.

After being stored underground for ten to 14 days, the dog waste will be vacuumed out and sent to a processing plant outside the city, where it will be used to create biogas for heat and energy. Any surplus will be used for fertiliser.

According to the Huffington Post article, the idea for the scheme came from a Waterloo resident who works in construction and owns a dog.