Back by Popular Demand: Build your own Pet Waste Composter!

Please join Hearthmakers at 99 York St next Saturday, October 22nd for a fun and interactive workshop: Build your own Pet Waste Composter! Workshop starts at 1:30 and is free!

At this workshop, you'll build the initial components you need for your very own composter, then you'll leave with all the items you'll need to install the composter on your property!

** call to register, as spaces are limited. 613-547-8122

Why compost pet waste?

Pet waste, specifically from dogs, is 5 times more toxic than that of humans or animals with predominently vegetarian diets. When it rains, pet waste left behind by owners washes directly into the storm sewers and into our lakes and streams.

This results in bacteria such as E.coli and nutrients such as nitrogen to overload the bodies of water. We all know that E.coli can make you sick, but isn't nitrogen a good thing? Especially for plants and gardens? It's an ingredient in fertilizer, correct? Nitrogen is a fertilizer ingredient, but too much of a good thing turns out to be a bad thing. If pet waste is left on your lawn for too long, you'll notice that it actually burns the grass on which it sits - effectively killing plant life. Nitrogen, as a nutrient, is great for plants, including those that live in the water. Too much nitrogen, a nutrient overload, in a lake or stream, can cause algae blooms. Nutrient overloads provide food for the algae, allowing their population to explode. The algae can overwhelm the body of water, blocking out sunlight and oxygen for other organisms.

So come out to our workshop this Saturday, August 13th and do your part to reduce runoff pollution in Lake Ontario and the Cataraqui River.

Call Hearthmakers Energy Cooperative and ask for Liz Cooper to register (csr@hearthmakers.org)

Enjoying the fruits of the RAIN program - clean lake water!