Energy Independence

Claire sent me a link to this older article earlier today about San Francisco’s attempt at converting dog poop into energy.  From the article:

Under the pilot plan, announced this week, Sunset Scavenger will place biodegradable bags and what are tastefully called dog-waste carts in a popular San Francisco dog park. The dog poo will then be put into a methane digester, where bacteria will eat away at it for two weeks before it turns into methane gas. The gas can then be used to power appliances such as cookers and heaters that currently run on natural gas. It can also be used to generate electricity.

The best part about the article is that it highlights several problems that I have discussed with Katie in the past few months regarding Seattle’s bag tax.  Namely, if the 20-cent tax per plastic bag at a grocery store goes through, what do the dog owners do if those same bags were helping them comply with the dog-waste pick-up laws?  We may just see more poop going un-picked-up, who knows?  Of course, the (debateably) environmentally proper way to dispose of dog-waste is to get it into the toilet, but as most pet owners know, there’s rarely a toilet handy on your walks.  (Another way would be to compost it yourself, but there are issues of remaining bacteria getting into your vegetables or even the water supply if you do this.)

I’m wondering how much it would cost San Francisco or Seattle to provide smaller versions of these “dog-waste carts” and biodegradeable bags every few blocks throughout the city.  We already have public trash cans, public recycle bins, etc.  Why not another small bin next to it that can possibly yield some extra methane power?