What to do with the mountain of elephant dung?
Five students from the AMS Institute set up a ‘living lab’ for ARTIS in the autumn of 2022. They were tasked with valorising the manure streams from ARTIS and the focus was on elephant dung due to its large volume. Various options came up: using a biodigester or composting machine, fermenting it into bokashi or using the manure as sheet material.
Composting nearby?
During a meeting for members of the De Plantage neighborhood network on November 15, 2022, the students shared their findings with the members present. As De Plantage, we subsequently submitted a subsidy application for the installation of composting machines in the area, where organizations and residents can both store their GFT and collect their compost. The application is with the municipality, we hope to tell you more about that soon.
Elephant dung as raw material!
With the exception of the biodigester, ARTIS will use all options to process the manure flow. Bokashi has already been made and used as a soil improver for your own garden. The composting machine is on order to be installed in the summer. And the students experimented with the manure; they dried the manure on improvised pallet constructions, in a specially purchased second-hand microwave and then pressed the manure in a heat press. The outcome was so promising that they are now investigating whether the manure can be used as building material for a bench that will be used in ARTIS Park.
Loook at the video they made for their final presentation about ‘the route of the turd’.
Very nice to investigate this, we will keep you posted!