Pick It Up, It’s Your Doodie

If you have a dog or walk a dog or live near folks who have dogs, your neighborhood probably has a problem with certain folks who don’t do their doodie duty. While these people are jerks and there are hilarious ways to get revenge on them, first let’s examine the environmental impact of these lazy irresponsible people who probably don’t deserve their adorable pooch.

“America's 73 million dogs produce around 10 million tons of dog poop per year. The litter from America's 90 million pet cats results in around 2 millions tons of cat litter being sent to landfills each year. Making the problem worse, clay-based litters aren't biodegradable, as they're already in their final state of decomposition,” says Christie Keith of the San Francisco Chronicle.

At EcoD, we pick-up after our dogs. Callie, Myli, Petunia, and Sadie are proper girls who would never discuss their contribution to this waste problem. Oscar and Leon however wish to claim that they contribute 10% of that all by themselves. As the people who pick up after them, it feels more like 12%. But we do it. And we’re looking for ways to do it better.

Pet waste is biodegradable, so eventually it should return to the earth, improve the soil, and the waste problem is no longer a problem. But we wrap it in plastic so it never gets the chance. Plastic scoop bags are easy to come by. Plastic is given away everywhere. It’s free! It’s hard enough to get some of these people to pick-up let alone pick-up in an earth friendly way.

Well for those of you who are interested in being earth-lovers at the dog park, hopefully you’ll start a trend. Hopefully people will see how cool you are and want to be like you and do these doodie solutions:

Flush it: Dog feces can be safely disposed of in the toilet, though used cat litter should never be flushed. Modern waste treatment doesn't kill a pesky organism known as toxoplasma gondii. When water containing this parasite enters the ocean, it sickens and kills sea otter populations. Toxoplasma also causes disease in humans, especially the immune-compromised and pregnant women. (Thanks again Ms. Keith)

Compost it: Some people are worried about bacteria. A healthy compost heap gets pretty hot and kills off most of what is bad. Oscar has been fortunate enough to visit many places with large active composts and has a natural inclination to use the rotting mound for his business. Since dogs and cats both want to handle the call of nature as far from their eating and sleeping place as possible, it’s easy to train them to use the compost area. This works for large open composts. If your compost is containered or very small, it’s probably best to curb your pooch, scoop with something biodegradable like newspaper, and do the transfer yourself. Clay cat litter is not compostable. Pine, news paper, straw, corn, green tea, and other natural and biodegradable litters are commercially available.

Scoop it: Biodegradable scooping systems exist! Hooray technology! Corn based plastic bags are available online and in many pet supply stores. If you’re a dog-park frequenter, this is an easy way to improve your pick-up. Scoop boxes made of cardboard are also available- nice and sturdy for easy clean-up.