阿拉木汗
記錄學習的過程與心得 周遭的人與事 生活的感恩與遺憾
Every creature poops. Animal poop serves many functions: it can be
More than three thousand years ago, the Great Wall in ancient China was built to
defend against northern nomadic horsemen from the Mongolian steppes. The Great
Wall was composed of hundreds of passes, fortresses, towers and stretches of wall.
Soldiers in ancient China burned dried wolves dung as fuel in beacon towers to give
the alarm if an enemy invaded.
Nowadays, in many countries of the world, people still use dry animal dung as
fuel. Dung of cows and water buffaloes are the major fuel sources in many poor
villages. Village people in China, Afghanistan, or India collect the dung, shape the
dung by hand into dung cakes or dung patties, and then paste them on the wall or on
the ground. Village people use the dung cakes or dung patties as fuel when they cook
(WildFilmsIndia).
Many farmers and ranchers in this country collect dung and convert it to
produce biogas, mainly methane, which is used to generate electricity. Recycling
animal dung into energy serves multiple benefits: to reduce environmental pollution,
to reduce air pollution (greenhouse gas), and to create the energy to generate
electricity. According to Natural Resources Defense Council:
In 2011, there were about 180 operational biogas recovery systems on
Herbivore animals’ waste such as elephant or sheep dung can be used to make
paper is a good way to save the trees. Elephants are huge animals that create
extensive amounts of waste, and their waste is rich in cellulose, which is the majority
of traditional wood-pulp paper. The process to make dung paper is very natural, for
no chemicals will be added. This might be the reason Christopher Ofili, a British artist
and the Turner Prize winner, uses elephant dung paper for his paintings (South).
In Thailand, workers at The Elephant Dung Paper Company collect the elephant
dung, wash the dung and boil it for five hours, spin the dung to cut fibers for up to
three hours and add color, weigh the dung fiber into equal balls, sift the liquid fibers
evenly into frames, dry the frames in the sun, sand the dung paper to a smooth
surface, and then assemble the dung paper into packages (elephant dung paper).
Mr. Ellie Pooh is another company that produces elephant dung paper. Years ago,
Karl Wald, an American doctor, took a trip to Sri Lanka. This adventure ended up
with an elephant dung paper company: Mr. Ellie Pooh. The company’s workshop in
Sri Lanka was “Established with the goal of reducing conflict between humans and
According to the company’s website “Mr. Ellie Pooh’s paper products are
dung paper products can be found in the United States at zoos, fair trade stores, green
stores, museums, or the online stores. (Mr. Ellie Pooh 1)
In Wales, there are no elephants but plenty of sheep. Creative Paper Wales is
the only handcraft paper manufacturer in Wales, and their paper products include
“Sheep Poo Paper™”. The raw material, the super-fresh sheep poo, for making Sheep
Poo Paper™ is collected from the beautiful mountains of rural Wales. After boiling,
washing, beating, and blending, the sheep poo converts to “a pulp suitable for making
paper.” Creative Paper Wales only use traditional papermaking techniques to produce
the pulp into sheets (Creative Paper Wales).
These three companies are doing the work most of the businesses would not try,
And their creative enterprise is a great contribution to the environment.
Dung beetles are one of the scavengers of nature. They enjoy having herbivore
animals’ poop. “Adult dung beetles eat poop, and they also need it to feed their
young. When two beetles mate, they look for a good food supply (pile of poop). They
immediately begin digging burrows underneath the poop. Once burrows have been
dug, both the male and female begin rolling balls of dung to the bottom of each one.
The female dung beetle lays an egg inside each dung ball. Beetle larvae, called grubs,
hatch from their eggs and immediately start eating the dung around them.” In order to
roll the dung balls back to their burrows, dung beetles are very workaholic (Fairfax
County Public Schools).
Human stool also has an extraordinary effect. According to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, the Clostridium difficile (C-diff), a very tenacious
bacterium, “causes diarrhea linked to 14,000 American people’s death each year”.
Fecal microbiota transplant, or F.M.T., is one important and highly effective therapy
to cure C-diff infected patients. “The idea behind fecal transfers is that restoring
colonies of healthy bacteria can either dilute or crowd out these harmful strains” (Lee).
However, the procedure is somewhat tricky. First, “There are only about sixteen
centers in the country that even offer the treatment” (Lee). Making an appointment
might take a long time. Second, the donor has to be healthy:
The donor has to be healthy (and will be screened, via stool and blood,
for transmissible diseases like H.I.V., as well as for pathogens and
parasites); has to avoid any foods the patient might be allergic to; and
has to be nearby, as freshness is an issue: the bacteria mix may begin
to change once the stool leaves the body. (Lee)
The Mayo Clinic in Arizona has had a team to perform F.M.T. since 2011. Dr.
Robert Orenstein, D.O., comments about the first transplant that “Unbelievably, the
patient left the hospital twenty four hours after the procedure, after having been
bedridden for weeks.” Their team performed twenty-four of the procedures after that,
and the results are stunning. “In every case, the infection was completely eradicated –
often within hours or days – although two patients with comorbidities experienced
relapses.” The success rate is more than ninety percent (Mayo Clinic Org.).
Recently, at the 2013 IDWeek, an infectious diseases conference in San
Francisco, Dr. Thomas Louie, an infectious disease specialist at the University of
Calgary, presented a study for which he is a lead author about “swallowing pills
containing a concentrate of fecal bacteria stops recurrent bouts of debilitating
clostridium difficile infection by rebalancing the bacteria in the gut.” on Oct. 3. The
co-authors of the study are Kristine Cannon, Heidi O’Grady, Kaiyu Wu, and Linda
Ward. The “University of Calgary researchers reported a one hundred per cent
success rate – none of the twenty-seven patients who took the tablet-sized pills had a
recurrence of C. diff, even though all of them previously had at least four bouts of the
infection. Patients ingested between 24 and 34 capsules containing fecal bacteria,
often donated by family members.” There are three methods: enema, colonoscopy or
F.M.T. However, when one of Dr. Louie’s patients “failed to respond to the enema
method on two occasions and also could not tolerate a nasal tube,” he started the
process of making pills for that individual patient. Thankfully it was successful. “The
IDWeek research suggests the less-invasive pills are viable and effective delivery
method” (University of Calgary).
Another amazing use of poop might be the poop-powered motorcycle, Toilet
Bike Neo, a three-wheeled motorcycle. TOTO, Japan’s biggest manufacturer of
toilets, produced Toilet Bike Neo. Its power is from biogas, which is converted from
“animal excreta” or “household wastewater,” and it can run for a maximum three
hundred kilometers with a full load of animal excreta, according to the company. The
driver’s seat is made from a toilet seat, a huge roll of toilet paper is on the tank in the
back, and there is a talking miniature toilet on the front (Takahashi).
It is fascinating to know that the animals and humans waste are not totally
wasted. In all languages, the words for feces are considered to be indelicate, and
people use metaphorical expressions to say them. Human ingenuity; however, has
transformed this same waste into useful products, and this gives the best interpretation
of “turning waste into gold”.
Works Cited
Creative Paper Wales. "Sheep Poo Paper." Creative Paper Wales. N.p., n.d. Web. 02
Dec. 2013.
Island Creek Elementary School. “Dung Beetle.” Fairfax County Public Schools.
Fairfax County Public Schools, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.
Lee, Marie Myung-Ok. “Why I Donated My Stool.” New York Times 7 July 2013,
natl.ed.: Print.
Mayo Clinic Org. “Quick, Inexpensive and a 90 Percent Cure Rate.” Mayo Clinic Org.
N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.
Mr. Ellie Pooh. "Welcome to Mr. Ellie Pooh LLC." Mr. Ellie Pooh. N.p., n.d. Web.
South, David, ed. “Turning Animal Waste Into Paper.” Southern Innovator. David
South, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.
Takahashi, Yoriko. "TOTO's "Toilet Bike Neo" on Display in Roppongi
Infection. By United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. United
States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 01 Mar. 2013. Web. 29 Nov.
2013.
University of Calgary. "Patients Report High Level of Satisfaction after Taking Fecal
WildFilmsIndia, prod. “Indian Villager Making Cow Dung Cakes for Cooking Fuel,
Uttar Pradesh.” YouTube. YouTube, 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.
