Last year, New York City gave out 92,000 dog licenses, but community surveys conducted by the city health department have suggested the actual number of canines is usually five times higher than this official count. Do some quick number crunching based on the average urban canine, and these counted and uncounted dogs would defecate about 74 tons of poop per day — or 27,000 tons annually.
That mound of doo would rival the weight of 3,800 African elephants, and typically, this excrement winds up in a landfill where it releases methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas.
But in Battery Park City, dog owners have already composted nearly 5,700 pounds of pet feces since 2019 to help grow plants on roadside medians. That’s just over half a ton a year. This neighborhood program is now preparing to expand beyond the eight bins located in or around the area’s three dog runs.
By spring, the Battery Park City Authority, a government organization established in 1968 that manages land in the area that's owned by the Port Authority, will upgrade to a larger capacity composter that can handle as much poop as the neighborhood dogs can make. The goal is to divert all of its estimated daily 200 pounds (36 tons annually) of doggie doo away from landfills. Currently, it only composts around 10% of that.
Click "listen" in the player to hear more details, and visit Gothamist for the full story.