Dog Clean-Up Ideas

This is kind of a side bar to the plastic bag thread. Like everyone else here I'm a huge fan of reusable grocery bags. On the occasion that I don't have one with me and stop by the store for a few things I request plastic because I use them to clean up when I'm walking my dog. I'd rather not use them at all, but don't have a good alternative. I've thought about using a heavier, reusuable plastic or rubber bag. Poop could be tossed on the compost pile without any real worries. The bags could easily be flipped inside out and washed with a hose in the warm seasons, but would be a royal pain in the winter. Does anyone have any solutions/practices that don't take 500 years to get rid of?

Gregg, I believe that pet poop should not go on the compost pile since the strong acidity in the dog's stomach means the dog will not be impacted by what they eat but the offending microflora may readily be transferred to and impact humans whose stomach acids are much weaker in strength.
Is it possible to make right sized pockets out of newspapers?

Gregg, I've contemplated having a dedicated compost for dog doo, but haven't been brave enough yet. If I lived in the country I would totally do this, but we have a small lot and I'm concerned about smell and pathogens.

This is the site that really got me thinking. A few months I had a thread about it but even here on the boards there was not a clear opinion one way or the other.

http://cityfarmer.org/petwaste.html

What we do, FWIW, is solicit bags from others in our lives. For example, my mother-in-law happily saves all her bread bags, produce bags, etc. She doesn't get plastic shopping bags, either, but there are a lot of other bags in our lives. Or once my husband's coworker offered to bring the stupid bags that newspapers come in. These people would be obtaining these bags and pitching them regardless of whether we took them or not. What does bother me a teeeeeeny bit is that my parents take EXTRA plastic bags at the store in order to pass them on to us, even though we have plenty from other sources and are trying to reduce our own plastic use. So our efforts are probably cancelled out by them, but we can't control that, so I don't think about it too much.

When I was growing up we had two seperate compost piles (space was not an issue on the farm). In the first were all the usual suspects and the second went all the things that were either not so pleasent to work with, like dog poop, or things that took longer to break down, like citrus peels and woodier trimmings. The first pile was used on the garden, the second on non-edible plantings. My Dad, who was a true compost pro, said the added time required to break down the fibers in the woody trimmings would also take care of any pathogens in the poop. That's pretty much how we've always done it since I had my own system as well so there is a 60+ year history to go on. We've never had any disease from the compost, plant or human.

I have used the newspaper bags many times. The problem is that I have a very small town newspaper and a very large dog, if ya know what I mean. Looking for all the other bags in our lives that get tossed is a great idea. I'm sure there are plenty if I really pay attention. I lean against newspaper. Enviromentally speaking its a nice solution, but because it is absorbant I'd probably end up keeping it in a plastic bag to contain the mess.

I agree that this is an issue with no clear best practice for a frugal, earth-friendly person, just like the cat litter problem.

Currently we buy the biodegradable poop bags that are reasonably priced when bought in bulk. It means buying something simply to throw it away, which goes against my frugal nature, but plastic bags don't enter my life in enough quantities to use free ones. I do have a stash of plastic grocery bags (that came with the house we bought, believe it or not), but I use 1 a week for our kitchen garbage, and they are usually too holey to make good pooper scoopers anyway.

It makes me ridiculously happy when my dogs tandem poop so I can use one bag for both! :D

For cat litter (which I know you didn't ask about), I save any bag that comes into the house for another purpose, including the bags that dog food comes in, the bags that charities are always dropping by for donations, etc. I always feel better about getting one more use out of something disposable, before it's finally sent to the landfill.

Kara

Seconding the bio-bags here. They are not perfect, and don't break down as well in our climate as they would in others', but they're the best solution I can come up with at the moment for "on-the-go" poop. In the backyard here, we're working on a digester, as we have two dogs and they, er, produce a lot.

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Originally Posted by treehugger

It makes me ridiculously happy when my dogs tandem poop so I can use one bag for both! :D

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Love it! That'd be us too!

there are SO many small plastic bags or sheets of plastic (like stretched over trays of produce items, etc), that I'd think just the unavoidable plastic would be sufficient for even several big dogs.......it's more difficult to do without the plastic grocery bags to line trash cans, etc. We manage by using reusable bags and getting donations of bags as needed from friends or relatives who do get the disposable ones regularly, but that isn't really a good, long term solution.

DH is a librarian and buys the newspaper every day for his patrons, then brings it home, and I use those to pick up the poop of our four dogs, in the yard. Outside the yard, I want to try it and may. We use biodegradable bags for indoor garbage. He's in charge of the outdoor trash can garbage and doesn't care much about the plastic thing, so uses it there. For the dogs' poop I sometimes use these smallish rectangles (and ours are big dogs) I got when Borders when out of business here--they are something like waxed paper and apparently used for something or other by food handlers (like maybe to put a doughnut on when handing it to the customer). These are great, but I got a whole lot for almost nothing because the store was closing. I don't know if they have plastic in them, or where else they're available. If anyone else knows these things, I'd like to know.

I use newspaper and put it in a re-usable (albeit stinky) plastic bag. When I get home, I bury the poop & paper in the yard. I dig a new hole every few weeks and when it gets full I cover it with wood chips and then a layer of soil.

For the yard, I use a small spade and a bucket to gather waste, and put it in the hole.
Here's some info on vermicomposting dog waste.

Gardenarian, how big is your yard?

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Originally Posted by fidgiegirl

Gardenarian, how big is your yard?

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Not huge - 75x100. I should have mentioned - I put a board over the hole so no one steps in it! I don't bury dog waste where we are growing veggies, but will bury it under fruit trees, roses, and the pine trees. I don't have a lawn anymore (turned it into a wildflower meadow) and I also have put a few holes in there. It seems to be good for the soil.

We have 2 separate compost bins but also will use newspaper to wrap our dog's poo in. We always have some sort of newspaper around & it certainly breaks down faster than plastic bags.