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Naturesweep's Machines Target Animal Waste Sweeping SegmentJuly, 2006 
Naturesweep is on an environmental sweeping mission to get rid of animal waste in grassy areas.The Naturesweep product is a composed of a tow-behind that has rotating bristles to pluck up the offensive droppings. Although the company boasts a number of satisfied clients in the Western Canadian marketplace, where goose poop has quickly become a big issue, the city of Seattle is the first municipality in the United States to try out the company's sweeper. 
The company is providing the device to the city for a free test drive as part of a program by Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation and the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) to find nonlethal ways to rid local green spaces of the fowl scat. According to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, about 70,000 Canada geese call Washington home. And, each one can leave behind as much as 5 pounds of waste a day, rendering many parks and beaches unuseable by people. The turf war came to a head from 2000 to 2003, when thousands of geese were rounded up and killed. Finally, a truce was declared in 2004, when PAWS and the city Parks Department established the Goose Program to try to find nonlethal options. According to inventer, Ed Zylstra, their patent-pending product not only handles animal waste but also dead leaves, aeration plugs, cigarette butts, cup lids, straws, syringes, lighters, rocks and general garbage. However, the most difficult litter to deal with is animal waste and aeration plugs. A welder by trade, Zylstra said he invented the machine after goose droppings kept kids on the soccer team he coached from playing on Victoria's fields. The machine has a sweeping width of 48" and an empty weight of 500 lbs. Power is via a 6-horsepower Kohler engine and the high-density hopper will hold and dump up to 450 lbs. of collected debris. The 4-foot-by-4-foot trailer is towed behind a small lawn tractor and the gas-powered motor turns nylon bristles designed to "tickle" the grass without damaging it. The droppings and other debris go into a hopper made of a special plastic that can withstand the nitrogen-laden droppings. The rate at which parks, golf courses and other areas are being affected by animal litter is increasing to the point of great concern. There are approximately 200 million geese in North America alone. It is common for geese to congregate around ponds, which are found on golf courses and parks. A large number of goose deposits make it unpleasant for the users of such sites, who generally look for alternative venues for their activities. "It's basically a carpet sweeper for grass," said Ed Zylstra, the inventor and company co-founder. "In some of the areas where our machines are at work we have even seen a demand for the goose sweepings for use as a compost product. That can lower the already modest cost of using our machine even further."
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