MIAMI – Zoo Miami is trying something different in an effort to be more ecofriendly by launching its Zoo Doo program.
"These animals produce thousands and thousands of poop every day," Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill said. "Here we have a little gazelle poop, here we have giraffe poop and zebra poop here. I got this all fresh this morning."
A few months ago, Zoo Miami became only the second zoo in America with an industrial-sized enviro drum.
The recipe for zoo doo is simple: one tractor bucket of plant debris mixed with a bucket load of precious yet pungent poop.
"This massive unit right here is where all this feces from endangered feces goes into it, and it tumbles and it rolls," Magill said, demonstrating the contraption.
The unit mixes and aerates for 10 days at over 130 degrees.
"What this does is separate the rocks and the sticks and the large chunks," Magill said.
The zoo doo is then packed in buckets, ready for sale.
"Starting today, for $12.95 a collector's bucket, you can have your own zoo doo and bring it home," Magill said.
A cubic yard of zoo doo costs $30.
Magill said his compost is the cleanest and from the freshest sources.
Magill said employees use herbivores to make the compost because carnivore feces are more toxic and have a lot more impurities.