Poop! Poop for fertilizer, heat, and electricity! Around 300 cows at Jordan Dairy Farm help generate energy and a nutrient-rich digestate, thanks to a specially built barn floor that collects their manure. Nearby, an anaerobic digester combines it with food waste to help the farm capture byproducts that they can reuse within the system. Elizabeth Gillis explains how it all works in this poop-tastic episode of Anna Rothschild’s Gross Science.
For more on recycling human waste, take a Reading Rainbow field trip to a wastewater treatment facility and check out the machine that turns poop to potable water. Also: Poop Guy.
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