Woodland Park Zoo’s popular Zoo Doo compost sale returns

SEATTLE – It’s time to pick up the most “poopular” compost in Seattle.

Woodland Park Zoo’s Zoo Doo program returns this year with a fully composted blend of species feces pooped by a variety of the zoo’s nonprimate herbivores and bedding materials from around the zoo.

The “most exotic compost available in the Pacific Northwest,” as the zoo describes it, “is a great way to garden clean and healthy for the benefit of pollinators and other local wildlife and is a sustainable green choice,” the zoo said in a news release.

The zoo’s horticultural experts even use the compost throughout the zoo in animal habitats and other landscaped areas.

To create the Zoo Doo, fresh manure from plant-eating animals at the zoo – such as rhinos, giraffe, hippos, mountain goats and zebras – and bedding materials like straw and wood chips are collected from animal enclosures. The materials are then taken to the Zoo Doo yard for active composting, which lasts about 30 days, the zoo said.

While composting, the piles maintain temperatures between 135 degrees and 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which allows the organic materials to decompose. These temperatures also destroys weed seeds and any potential pathogens, according to the zoo.

After the active composting phase, the piles begin secondary composting, or curing, during which the decomposition process slows as microbes finish breaking down the materials. Temperatures in the piles decrease and the compost matures into a dark and crumby humus, resembling rich organic soil in both look and smell, the zoo said.

For nearly 40 years, Woodland Park Zoo has composted approximately 500 tons of animal waste, saving around $125,000 each year in disposal costs, according to the zoo.

Zoo Doo will be available in bulk quantities for pickup 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and April 29-30. The following pickup sizes are available: 25 gallons ($15), 50 gallons ($30), 70 gallons ($40), 100 gallons ($50), 5’x4’ pickup trucks or 300 gallons ($80), 6’x5’ pickup trucks or 400 gallons ($100) and 8’x5’ pickup trucks or 550 gallons ($120).

Upcoming bulk sales will also be held in May, June and July, the zoo said. Visit zoo.org/zoodoo to book your pickup, pay with a credit card and get directions to the zoo for pickup.

Limited supplies of one-pint containers of Zoo Doo and Worm Doo are available year-round at Woodland Park’s ZooStores.