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21 July 2005
Completing the loop From Poop to Zoop ZooDoo is a manure-based compost produced from recycling the waste of exotic animals at Wellington Zoo, Auckland Zoo and Orana Park Wildlife Centre. Like any composted product, ZooDoo is 100% natural and highly concentrated.
So, whats the scoop on ZooDoo?
ZooDoo is:
- An environmentally friendly product that eliminates Wellington Zoos need to dump animal and bedding waste into local landfills
- A quality, odourless compost product suitable for outdoor plants and soil improvement
- 100% natural organic material
- A fertiliser that increases soils ability to hold water through the root zone. By adding ZooDoo to the soil, you are increasing the organic matter which will dictate the amount of water plants need.
- Available in bags at Wellington Zoos gift shop, Zoolittles
How is it made?
Sustainability is a key cultural ingredient at Wellington Zoo and is put into action through recycling rather than disposing of products used and made here.
For many years, waste generated by animals in New Zealand zoos, including Wellington Zoo, was treated as rubbish and thrown away.
In the early to mid 90s Wellington Zoo decided to recycle not only the waste excreted by the animals but the bedding provided for the animals.
Not-for-profit organisation Second Chance provided Wellington Zoo, Auckland Zoo and Orana Park Wildlife Centre with a proposal that would take animal poop and convert it into a high quality soil fertiliser to be named ZooDoo.
Today, Wellington Zoos role in the ZooDoo process is to collect its animal poop and old animal bedding and put it into trailers that are then taken by Second Chance to a processing facility that screens and tests the excrement to ensure it meets health and quality requirements.
The animal poop is then shredded, piled up and covered with black plastic before being heated to a high temperature and turned every two days. By using heat in the composting, the weeds and diseases present in the excrement are destroyed, sterilising the compost and making it safe for use in gardens.
After two to three weeks the compost is mixed with aged bark and is ready to be bagged and used.
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