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Like the poor man who had a pea growing in his lung (true!) most of us are growing a seedling of green conscience these days. We are being encouraged to recycle so many items that the ones that do make their way into the regular bin tend to stick in our minds. If you compost or otherwise dispose of organic waste youll probably end up with a bin bag full of plastic packaging. If you own a pet cat or dog the warm parcels of their waste will make strange accompaniments to all that inert plastic.

Toxoplasmosis & Toxocara
How can it be that something as natural, green and organic as your cat, can be contributing to landfill in this way? Almost anywhere you look the advice will be to keep your pet waste away from your compost heap despite a growing number of biodegradable litters appearing on the market. The advice is based on the danger of Toxoplasma gondii, a parasitic protozoa (not a virus as is often thought) present in cat faeces. This can cause toxoplasmosis, a potentially fatal disease especially for pregnant women and small children with their still-developing immune systems. Toxocara catis (roundworms) are also likely to be found and can infect humans as well as cats.

Hot compost kills germs
Good reasons to keep cat poo out of your compost then. Well, yes, but there are ways to cope with these pathogens if you know how to compost correctly and with due care. Composts can get to temperatures in excess of 130C at which point very little living matter can survive. At much lower temperatures in the range of 65-70C, pathogens will still die in a matter of seconds. The British Standard PAS100 ensure that green waste compost reaches 65C for a minimum of 7 days, twice, which is erring on the side of paranoia but they cant afford to take any risks. Whats amazing is that compost generates these temperatures on its own given the right materials.