The hardest part of removing poop from the N.C. State Fair, William Johnson says, is finding a crew willing to dig in, get the job done, and come back the next day.

Last year, about 165,000 tons of waste were removed from the fair's Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. Horse Complex.

Johnson's company, William Johnson Inc., cleans the stalls where thousands of horses are stabled during the 19 days of equine competition held in conjunction with the 10-day fair.

Johnson said it's a hard job to tackle. So hard that one of his crews went to lunch -- and never returned.

"It's not an easy job ... and it's hard on your back," he said. "I keep telling [the workers] that it's just like practicing baseball. Over time, you get better and better, and you get home faster."

The job is one we often just expect to happen.

Competitors muck their horses' stalls while they stay there. But when they leave, Johnson and his crew -- four to six people -- strip out the waste and pine shavings bedding to prepare for the arrival of the next show's horses.

At $2 per stall, workers push the poop/shavings combination out into the corridor. Johnson said the average person can clean a stall in three minutes. There are about 485 stalls in the complex. When they're all cleared out, a crew member drives a Bobcat through the aisles, pushing everything outside the barn.

A crew of three N.C. State Fair equipment operators dumps the waste into a metal container about 6 feet tall, 20 feet long and 10 feet deep. Then the waste is transported to the Brooks Compost Facility, a family-owned company based in Goldston.

At the 30-acre composting site, the waste is combined with other ingredients -- including eggshells, food waste and sawdust -- and composted. Several companies in and around the Triangle buy it in bulk, including Ogburn Landscape Supplies in Willow Springs and Mulch Masters, which has locations in Raleigh and Apex.

"It's a sign of the times," said horse show manager Glenn Petty. "The horse industry's gotten caught up in the ... emphasis on waste. There's an environmental plan on [the horse complex], because of the size of the facility."

Before that environmental plan, the manure was taken to a site outside Gate 5 and composted. The general public could back up a truck to the pile and help themselves to the free fertilizer.

But the arrangement wasn't always a good one, Petty said.

Composting produces heat. So when one man backed his brand new Ford truck up to the pile, the composting materials caused the truck's gas tank to ignite, leaving the truck nearly compost-ready.

On a few occasions, Petty said, the pile would spontaneously combust from within. Think Johnston County Stump Dump, which burned for about three weeks earlier this year.

The compost pile was finally heaved when developers decided to build a Comfort Suites hotel on Trinity Road.

"I don't think anybody wanted a view of that from their hotel window," Petty said.

But there are cows, pigs, chickens and ducks at the fair, too. What about their poo?

State Fair spokesman Brian Long said a lot of trash mixes in with the other animals' feces during the fair's 10-day stint, so it can't be composted. Waste Industries takes it with the rest of the trash to a local landfill.

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