Melanie Jones has had to fight her way through a lot of red tape to set up her world-first business, but her biggest obstacle has been squeamishness.That's because every month she makes compost out of 700 to 1,000 dogs and cats.In the past four years, the former veterinary surgeon has become accustomed to gasps of shock about what she does, but insists: "It's a dignity issue."Most of the carcasses that arrive on the hectare of farmland Jones rents on the Cape Flats are from animal welfare organisations. But private clients are also using what they see as an ethical, environmentally friendly - and cheaper - alternative to cremation.Before Jones introduced her pet composting option, welfare groups dumped animals in landfills, where decomposition beneath piles of household rubbish produces the greenhouse gas methane and toxic liquid that soaks into the ground.Now, after about six months between layers of sawdust and straw under sheets of plastic, and generating heat that eliminates pathogens, the carcasses find new life as top-quality compost.It's all part of a vision for a no-waste society that prompted Jones to launch Zero to Landfill Organics in 2008, initially focusing on food waste.Since then she's become something of a crusader, persuading companies including Woolworths, Spur and Table Mountain Aerial Cableway to separate waste at source so dry goods such as plastic and metal can be recycled while food is composted.With business partner Lesley Jones (no relation) of Pet Farewells, in 2013 Jones started offering "green burials" - the breakdown of an animal's body by bacteria and fungi.Clients can pay an additional fee to have a tree planted in memory of their pet through Greenpop.It's vital, said Jones, that the burials happen above ground so that plenty of oxygen is available for the decomposition process."The odours need to be managed when we turn the heaps by considering wind conditions and covering freshly turned heaps with mature compost." They have been very strict about our environmental management plan, but in the end that has helped us, because it means everything we do is carefully monitored Jones is quick to praise the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape's environmental affairs department for their assistance in the absence of legislation covering what she does."They have been very strict about our environmental management plan, but in the end that has helped us, because it means everything we do is carefully monitored and controlled."Cape Town mayoral committee member for utility services Ernest Sonnenberg said the plan required Jones to submit reports twice a year and undergo an annual inspection.Cape Town vet Rob Campbell said more than 60 customers had opted for green burials in the past three years."They see burials as more natural - and they are much cheaper," he said. Green burial for a large animal - over 20kg - costs R253 compared with R327 for group cremation and R758 for individual cremation with ashes returned in a cask.People's Dispensary for Sick Animals CEO Patrick Horrigan, who helped with initial research, said he had experienced "little opposition" to the idea. Staff had embraced composting as a more dignified alternative to disposal in landfills.For now, the 50 tons of food and garden waste Jones composts each month is scratching the surface when the city deals with a daily total of 5280 tons of rubbish, half of which is organic and could be composted.Sonnenberg said 975 tons a day were being diverted from landfills through composting, recycling and reusing builders' rubble, and a feasibility study in 2011 had suggested an extra 370 to 390 tons of organic waste could be composted.It's an urgent problem. "The City of Cape Town has less than five years of landfill airspace available," said Sonnenberg.But Jones is encouraged by the progress she has made - successfully composting everything from dough and glycerine to fat-trap waste and sheepskin trimmings - and by what she sees as a growing public appetite for greener living.Jones is waiting to hear if the city will allow her to compost animals killed on roads and is eyeing her biggest challenge: next time a dead whale washes up on a Cape Town beach, she wants to compost it. She thinks it will take about eight months...