Pets

Pet Products

This budding composting business represents yet another growth market in a robust pet economy. In the United States, a $45 billion per year industry revolves around companion animals—a niche market that has stimulated myriad specialty goods and services, including pet clothes, animal psychics, robotic litter boxes, and yoga for dogs (nicknamed “doga” by practitioners). Americans spend $18 billion each year on pet food alone. In 2007, an outbreak of kidney failure in dogs and cats was traced to canned foods manufactured with contaminated wheat gluten by a Chinese company. The gluten had been cut with melamine to boost its nitrogen levels and simulate higher protein content in testing. A similar scandal in 2008 involved adulterated baby formula. In both cases, consumers were outraged by the lack of regulation in international supply chains for food, highlighting how pets are considered family members as worthy as infants of protection.

Feces in Landfills

Pet feces make up around 4 percent of a city's solid waste, slightly less than the notorious bulk of disposable diapers. Once bagged in plastic, animal wastes have difficulty biodegrading. Research has shown that this desiccation has a silver lining in that pathogens do not generally leach into groundwater. The growing popularity of biodegradable poop bags may change this situation. To mitigate the risk of water pollution from feces in landfills, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) favors flushing pet excreta for treatment in sewage plants. Meanwhile, landfills continue to accumulate around two million tons of nonbiodegradable cat litter every year.

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