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BANG FOR THE BITE
If 10,000 dog-owning Biters switch to biodegradable bags or a scoop, we'll avoid the use of over 18 million plastic bags every year.
COCKTAIL FACT
San Francisco's piloting a project to harness the power of poop - turning methane from doggie doo into electricity.
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home › tip library › Biodegradable Dog Poop Bags
Just wondering: why are you preserving dog poop?
The Bite
Think about it: by using regular plastic doggie bags to clean up after your best friend, that poop is kept, er, fresh for longer than you probably intended. So switch to biodegradable bags or use a pooper scooper. After all, it’s your doodie!The Benefits
- In the US, the poop that dogs produce could fill an 800 ft tall football field each year. Use biodegradable bags, which break down in as few as 30 days.
- Bio-bags are comparably priced to regular baggies.
- Pooper scoopers are free after the initial investment.
Personally Speaking
Cricket was recently on NBC news for being an eco-pup. The part that featured her doodie being picked up with a biobag was shockingly cut, but they did show her doing some pretty impressive tricks for all-natural bison jerky.Wanna Try?
- Skooperbox - recycled-paper scoops that begin to biodegrade in a few weeks ($13-$15).
- Spike Business Bags - Cricket can vouch that these bags'll decompose in about a month and a half ($6).
- BioBag Dog Waste Bags - made from GMO-free corn ($6).
- Pooper Scooper - avoid the bag altogether ($10).
Jul 28,2006
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Poop on Heather
Honestly, I feel so incredibly fortunate to have found the best business partner and friend in Heather. (Yes, we met at a bar so don't think you always have to meet romantic conquests there.. open your mind to meeting business partners and Biters... I digress...).
But dude, today starts my first vacation in 2 years, and I am writing a blog on dog poop bags, and it was the lovely (poopy) Mizz Stephenson that assigns who does what blog which day.
I will tell you though that in Bozeman - which is a very doggy town - there are dog poop bags in every park that are the bio-degradable kind. I have trained the Cricket to go off the trails in the woods though so we don't have to mess with it. However one day she made a little mistake and so I used the "stick - n - flick" method. I got lots of laughs from dog owners and scowls from non-dog owners.
Off to walk the Crick... I am just taking her for swims more these days as it has been so hot - Jen
Biter Comments...
I just find a nearby plant with really big leaves, scoop and "bag" with that, and deposit in a more remote area. Guess that might not work in the city.
Dog poop is an unpleasant nuisance in cities, for sure, but hikers in remote areas should be doubly conscious about picking up after their dog. Dog crap can spread parasites and disease to wildlife, leach into groundwater, add extra nitrogen to the soil (not always a good thing) and because many species use scat (wild poop) as signposts, your dog's poop is probably mucking up communication. Pack it in, pack it out. I take plastic bags for my dog's poop where ever I go, biodegradable or not.
Learned from a friend in Seattle: scoop into a box, then cover with used coffee grounds. Starbucks is happy to give away "Grounds for your Garden"---and it totally neutralizes all poop smell!! Then, it can decompose in the landfill.....
We're so happy to see Spike getting some respect!
FYI, this summer Spike Business Bags are "going domestic". Up until this year all of the plastic we used came from Europe (same source as the BioBag folks) and we imported a finished product. However, we helped an american company develop a homegrown version made with US Corn. While still meeting the most demanding specification for compostability, this new plastic will allow us to go head-to-head with traditional petroleum-based plastics.
Remember what Spike says, "There's no business like dog business"
Ian
They aren't biodegradable, but if you have an excess of bags from shopping, at least you're recycling if you use them to pick up poop. So many products come with excess packaging that can be used as well. And as someone else noted, it's important to pick it up for reasons other than saving people's shoes--dogs aren't living on diets composed entirely of natural foods, so their poop can contaminate the environment and hurt other wildlife.
I am so glad you came up with this topic. I buy sandwich bags that I have been using to scoop my poop (I have three dogs so thats a lot of scooping and a lot of bags...not to mention poop...:). I try to be eco-friendly and DOH, I can't beleive that I didn't think of that...biodegradable bags! Thanks...I'm going to find em!
isn't it still best to
reuse plastic bags you get at the grocery or
those clear ones from the produce aisle?
Isn't it always better to recycle then to buy newly
produced anything- even over bio-degradable plastic.
I live in NYC and always have used
the grocery bags and produce bags to pooper-
scoop. Since these bags are not recyclable here
it seems like the best choice, no? Btw, I have
cut down on the number of plastic bags I take
by carrying a canvas tote some of the time and by reusing
the ones I already have. It is challenging though
and life is too fast paced to plan and organize that those bags are always with me.
Jen... you are such a scream!! Oh the visuals! Girl, you make me laugh :-)
I was glad to see this tip, but like Sarah, I think it didn't adequately express the importance of picking up dog waste to prevent water pollution and the spread of disease. And this applies to whether the doggie goes on a city street or out in the deep woods. The biodegrable bag idea is a good one, but I'm just happy to see people making the effort to pick it up, even if it is a reused plastic bag. My Office got nationwide attention recently went the AP picked up a story about dog waste and our "pet waste pick up cards." This page has some reader friendly info on it and you can see the card:
http://www.eenorthcarolina.org/consumer/petcard.htm
These cards are being distributed by vets in hopes that it will help pet owners understand why this is so important, no matter where your pooch choses to poop.
this whole topic (biodegradable/plastic/paper) is really pointless, since nothing decomposes in a landfill. trash is sealed in dumps, and w/o oxygen, nothing can biodegrade. and because of it can spread disease, it can't be composted. any other ideas?
Check out the Doggie Dooley, for those of you with yards. You
you bury it in the back yard and put enzymes in once/week and water in once/day - and all the poop "disappears" and doesn't smell at all! The website for the Dooley is: www.doggiedooley.com
If you have the space to bury it, this seems like the best of all worlds (and when we take walks, we are fans of using the bags the newspaper comes in...)
One of my co-workers uses the plastic bags from newspapers to pick up after her dog. Afterwards, she flushes the poop down the toilet and throws out the empty bag. Much healthier way to dispose of dog poop!
So just how well do biodegradable dog poop bags break down? To answer Brigid, and all the other Biters that wrote in, it depends on where they end up!
If they end up in a landfill - like everything else in the landfill - those biodegradable dog poop bags will be there for a very long time. Perhaps for hundreds of years. A recent Smithsonian article discusses biodegradable plastics – and suggests that their true eco-benefit will be realized only when more places have municipal composting systems: http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/august/pla.php?page=1
If you're lucky enough to have municipal composting already, biodegradable bags are perfect for dog poop disposal, making it easy to transport and then breaking down quickly and efficiently as part of the composting system. Wish we had one in New York City!
Likewise, biodegradable bags are great for composting dog poop in the backyard. If you’re up for the challenge, make sure you’re composting dog poop safely and check out this great DIY website that one Biter suggested: http://www.compostinfo.com/tutorial/DogWaste.htm
Great tip!
I take it one step farther, though. I reuse. There are lots of plastic bags in my life--and, I venture to say, in the lives of all but the most green and sustainable folks. Furthermore, there are many plastic bags which don't have other uses.
Produce bag which have gotten wet; bags which newspapers come in; toilet paper wrappings (yes, those sometimes work)...well, you get the picture.
All of those are used to scoop. And we have a lot of scooping around here--three labs.
Of course, I still do feel awful about filling the garbage can with dog poop, but there's no way around it.
We are all missing the most important point. Pet waste should never end up in a landfill where it can pollute our water supply. There is a better solution. Pethabitats.com make a 100% flushable waste bag that can be flushed in any toilet without clogging plumbing. They are strong enough to not break down prematurely yet thin enough to dissolve easily in water.
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: rick | July 28, 2006 at 10:07 AM