The Scoop on Poop
I’ve pretty consistently had dogs in my home since I was about six. I can hardly imagine living without at least one.
Sometimes I lived in big cities, where dogs had to be walked down three flights of stairs and around the neighborhood several times a day. Other times I lived in smaller towns where the canine family members could go out the back door into a yard. Now I live in the woods, where Tootsie the Wonder Dog can wander at will.
Never in my history with dogs was there the expectation that a dog’s person would pick up canine bowel movements produced outdoors. People just accepted that dog turds happen—and then they biodegrade.
But nowadays dog walkers are expected to pick up the poop and dispose of it. This has created an industry of doggy-doo disposal systems. (Actually, I don’t know if city ordinances begat the industry, or the other way around.)
I understand that people don’t like stepping in doggie-doo when strolling through town. But honestly, it won’t hurt you, as long as you don’t eat it. But if each dog in the USA poops once a day, and a person puts the poop in plastic and drops it in the nearest trash bin—today, tomorrow, and everyday the dog is alive—that’s a lot of plastic going into a landfill. And ultimately, that hurts everybody.
But it occurred to me that perhaps these doggy-doo bags are biodegradable. So, I did a little research:
Polyethylene bags appear to be the cheapest—900 poops for $15. Polyethylene doesn’t biodegrade, but apparently can be recycled if it’s clean and dry. Well, poop!
For $21, one can get 1080 USDA Certified 38% Biobased Poop Bags. They contain “biobased” materials and plastic. Not biodegradable.
For $7, you can get 60 actual biodegradable dog poop bags. (That’s $116 for 1000 poops.) But here’s the catch—in order to biodegrade, these bags must be “composted along with organic waste in municipal composting facilities where available. Facilities may not exist in your area.”
If you toss this “biodegradable” bag into the nearest trash bin, it will not degrade very quickly if it degrades at all. The Federal Trade Commission website (ftc.gov) warns us of this doggy-doo deception. You must read the fine print and follow the recommendations if you want to be certain your doggy bags will return to the earth in a timely fashion.
Now, you can assure that a biodegradable doggy bag fulfills its biodegradation promises by carrying home the filled baggie and burying it in your backyard. But then why bother with the baggie? A reusable container that has a snap-on lid and can be hosed out will do just as well.
I suspect some billionaire CEO created the dog poop problem. Convinced the populace that dog poop was alarming and then created the poop baggie. Now we have an existential dilemma: Do we have ordinances to curb our neighbors’ disgust, or do we take care of the planet on which we live?
Why not hire municipal poop scoopers? They can stroll the community with a rolling poop bin, clean up the leavings, and dump them in a location where they can quickly degrade, just as they did in the olden days. If the community celebrated the position, engaging the strolling scoopers in conversation, and paying them reasonably well (with money saved by not buying poop bags), it could be a decent job, and help the planet. I’d gladly apply.
In the country no one is going to step in the poop, but in the city they do. They can also slip on the poop. It’s respect for our neighbors to pick up the poop. It stinks and won’t biodegrade on the concrete streets. You’re confusing two issues. The first is picking up the poop…which is respectful. The second is disposing of the poop. Many choices….there are truly disposable poop bags. You can also put in container and dispose of in ground or in trash. Whatever you do, pick up the damn poop!