The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base in China used to spend $770/month to get rid of the panda poops, but not anymore! They recently realized that they can even earn some extra money from the panda poops by turning them to souvenirs ranging from bookmarks to Olympic statues of the pandas!
The facility has about 40 pandas that are feed with bamboos everyday and this hard working pandas manage to produce about ONE TON of poop each day! Jing Shimi(assistant to the base director) said:
“We used to spend at least 6,000 yuan ($770) a month to get rid of the droppings but now they can be lucrative. ”
he also mentioned that:
“They don’t smell too bad because 70 percent of the dung is just remains of the bamboo that the pandas are unable to digest.”
Another official who refused to give his name said:
“(the dung is) carefully selected, smashed, dried and sterilized at 300 degrees Celsius.”
he also mentioned that the products will be of all colors because they will be dyed!