New Compost Center Recycles Zoo Waste

The words of the day were “zoo doo.”

At the grand opening of the Griffith Park Composting Facility on Wednesday, city official after city official delighted in the phrase. Councilwoman Ruth Galanter lamented that they had been unable to borrow an elephant for the occasion to illustrate the concept. “Then we would have had every TV station here,” she said.

“Zoo doo” will soon help the plants at Griffith Park grow. Instead of being dumped in landfills as is done currently, the four tons of this raw material that animals at the L.A. Zoo produce every day will instead head to the new composting center.

The site, in operation since the end of January, already composts shredded plant clippings and “biosolids” from the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant near El Segundo. (Biosolids are, more or less, the human doo you flush down the toilet.) For the city, this pilot project could save a quarter of a million dollars a year in landfill and other costs.

“This is completing the cycle in recycling,” said Reva Fabrikant, an environmental engineer at the city’s Bureau of Sanitation.

The $1.2-million composting site has been a four-year joint effort of the city Department of Public Works and Department of Recreation and Parks. If the current 12-month trial is successful, the city will continue the program and may decide to build additional facilities.

To the uninitiated, the facility looks like a parking lot, 1 1/2 acres of blacktop dotted with rows of what looks like dirt, each more than 2 yards high and 16 yards long. A pungent whiff of decay washes past, and you realize it’s not dirt.

Each pile starts with 70 tons of green trimmings and biosolids. (The city will start adding the zoo doo one or two months from now.) Bacteria chew away at the mixture for a couple of months, reducing it to 12 tons of compost that is then used at Griffith Park. In the future, the city might start selling compost from the site to the public.

An adjoining self-guided education center tells visitors about various home composting options. Fabrikant sees the site as a stop on a family outing to Griffith Park, perhaps after visiting the zoo and picnicking in the park. “They’ll see the animals pooping, they’ll see the trees, and then we’ll go and see the compost area,” she said.

Before visiting, city officials recommend calling (800) 773-CITY to find out the best times for stopping by.

“I hope it becomes an eco-tour of the city,” said Councilwoman Galanter.