If the banana trees at Zoo Zurich are particularly lush, it’s thanks to a fertiliser with an unusual ingredient: human waste. In the spring of 2016, zoo employees cleared a bamboo grove in Zurich’s Masaola Rainforest to plant the trees. “We were really surprised how fast the plants put down roots,” says Martin Bauert, curator of the tropical area at Zoo Zurich. It’s a totally natural cycle, he says: faeces turn to soil and urine to fertiliser, which in turn provide the basis for producing food. The Greenport team got its inspiration from indigenous populations in the Amazon basin who centuries ago used to fertilise their fields with a similar mix of soil.

Source: Egypt Independent June 24, 2017 02:03 UTC