Attention Pooper Scoopers: How Green Are You?

It has become a rule of social etiquette to scoop your dogs poop when in a public place, or somewhere other than your own backyard. (See Dog Poop. Do You Scoop?) Most people use a simple plastic sandwich bag that they carry along with them during their dog walk for easy scooping and disposal. This may seem to be the most practical approach to poop scooping and it certainly is one that offers minimal contact with the fecal matter which is surely for most pet owners a major selling point. But in a time when experts are strongly advising us to choose eco-friendly alternatives to virtually every activity we participate in, it might be worth it to pause and think twice about the method you are using to clean up after your animal.

Have you ever considered the effect your poop scooping method of choice has on the environment? Doggie doo in its most natural form is obviously perfectly fine for our planet, as far as I am aware. If it weren't for the gross out factors (acknowledging that there are indeed many of them, which collectively cater to several of our known human five senses) one could really just leave the mess where it is initially deposited and it would eventually decompose. Unfortunately, though, since this is not the most practical pet waste disposal option for our time, or at least in heavily populated cities and sidewalks, we've come to rely on the almighty plastic bag transporter and pet waste barrier.

And what many people do not think about is that as soon as the standard sandwich baggie or reused grocery store plastic bag enters the pet poop pickup equation, the all natural process of poop distributed to the earth's soil for disintegration becomes blocked. As that bag of doggie poop is deposited into a typical trash receptacle, which I feel its safe to say the immediate goal the second the fecal matter enters your palm, the poop is destined to end up taking up space in a landfill. Because, of course, of the plastic bag barrier.

I know! It never occurred to me to think about this fact either. Not to worry though, eco responsible pet owners. There are solutions that do not necessarily require you to carry the poop bag into your dwelling and flush separately down the toilet.

Petcentric.com recently published an article on this topic which offers some unique greener alternatives to traditional pet waste disposal:

Biodegradable Pet Poop Bags:
As the Petcentric experts note, this greener pet waste removal alternative is not necessarily the best of your various options but it is at least preferable to more commonly used grocery bags or sandwich baggies. These greener poop bags, made particularly for this pet waste disposal usage do still, admittedly, end up in a landfill. The difference between these bags and traditional plastic baggies, though, is that through these biodegradable ones the whole package is more likely to eventually disintegrate, whereas the regular bags will sit there presumably forever.

Flush Friendly Dog Poop Bags:
Another option Petcentric lists is flush friendly poop bags. With this method the poop ends up in the sewer. While this definitely seems like a more eco-friendly alternative, it does still require a lot of physical handling of your dog's poop, that I'm not entirely sure the majority of pet owners will be too enthusiastic about enduring. The flushable bag option doesn't sound too promising in terms of being a product that will hit the charts in popularity. Unless maybe you had some sort of contraption to hook up to your brain which would temporarily dull your senses of smell and touch while the pet waste disposal operation was taking place.

Petcentric mentions a few other greener pet waste disposal alternatives that do not call for too much hands on action. They do, however, require a little extra effort as well as a more hefty initial investment.

Yard Waste Aways
One option is to purchase a Yard Waste Away, such as those sold by Pet Habitats.com. This equipment hooks up to your outdoor sewer line and allows you to directly trash the doggie doo from the yard to a shovel to the pipe, eliminating the plastic bag altogether. This is a great idea only it does not account for transfer of your pet's poop back to the Waste Away should you wish to take your pup on a neighborhood stroll; that is without, of course, going back to the forbidden plastic bag.

Waste Digester
The most appealing greener pet waste disposal alternative the Petcentric article suggests is by far the use of a Waste Digester like the one made by Doctors Foster and Smith called the Doggie Dooley. Apparently this little apparatus resembles a bucket in dimension and is buried somewhere in your yard. Supposedly when the poop you dispose there combines with an enzyme and water (which you add to the mix once a week) the entire concoction turns to liquid and once again becomes part of the earth. This sounds fantastic in terms of its eco friendliness but like some of the other options mentioned the product does not seem to be one that will soon monopolize the pet supply world. I have to wonder about how the pros of this greener option outweigh the very obvious cons. The fact that you have to transport the poop back and forth from this device is effort enough. There also is the reality that the Waste Digester in many cases, like the previous solution, may require some kind of transporter method like a plastic bag to bring the poop to and fro; which brings us back to the original problem posed in at the root of this dilemma.

Additionally, you feed the Waste Digester enzymes and water once a week only? So what does that mean the poop does for the other six days? Does it sit there and stink up your entire property and possibly your neighbors' too? Oh wait, that's right. It must spend that time transforming into a nasty stinky liquid, one that I'm sure also emits quite a nice scent. Yuk.

Composting
Most people have heard of composting as an environmentally friendly waste disposal option. A composting system seems like it may be one of the more optimal pet waste removal methods out there. It works naturally to liquefy the dog poop and redeliver it to the earth, very much like the waste digester, only with one glaringly more attractive difference. With a compost system you can add yard and certain other types of waste to it if you desire and turn it into fertilizer. The many benefits that come along with turning pet poop into something useful (the money you save on fertilizer and the convenience factor being two of them) make the thought of liquefied dog poop smell in the air a whole lot easier to tolerate for the sake of the planet.

Host a Worm Farm
The final pet waste disposal alternative suggested by the article is to host and maintain a worm farm. According to Petcentric, "Worm farming may be the most natural, practice and green way to get rid of dog poop." It certainly appears to be the most productive of the options as it has multiple purposes. How it works is that you feed the worms your dog poop (as well as organic kitchen waste if you so are interested). Because the worms immediately eat and digest it the odor is not an issue as it has been with the other green pet waste disposal ideas. If that weren't enough to convince you it might be compelling to learn that various secretions and the excrement from the worms can be used as fertilizer and a soil conditioner for gardening with non-edible plants.

It's clearly your prerogative which method you use to scoop your dog's poop. Different people have different preferences and needs. Hopefully, though, thanks to these greener poop scooping options from Petcentric, you have a better idea of the impact your poop scooping technique has on the environment and maybe if you aren't ready to upgrade to a greener option at the moment, you can at least feel confident that other choices exist if you should wish to opt for a more eco friendly method in the future.