Blogging Slate: Pet Poop

What's the green way to dispose of dog doo-doo and cat poop? Slate's Green Lantern column has good answers...

Both dog and cat poop can contain dangerous bacteria and other parasites, so it's something that you want to handle with care and keep out of the storm drain. The Lantern suggests using biodegradable waste bags to pick up and transport waste. If you have a dog, you can compost the poop, but it is a good idea to keep the dog waste compost separate from other compost. If you don't want to compost, you can also bury dog waste under at least a foot of soil.

For cat owners, you'll want to stick with the litter box, which is good news if your cat is as stubborn as most. But make sure you are using biodegradable litter. The Lantern explains that other litter is made from clay, which is produced by strip mining.

via Slate; photo by theliberat via sxc.hu

Comments (3)

That is gross, thanks for the picture of the dog crap!

posted by labchick on September 25th 2008 at 8:57am
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LOL At least it's black and white.

You can compost dog doo with your normal compost **IF** you have a hot compost.

Cat is a touchy matter. It can be done, but there are some control issues. http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/2005/Eric.html

posted by whytephoenix on September 25th 2008 at 9:15am
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I work in the solid waste industry, and I have to say biodegradable pet bags are one of our pet peeves (sorry - couldn't resist).

They reflect the average person's misunderstanding about how modern landfill systems work - that items deposited at this type of facility have varying levels of degradation. Sure, if we talk in hundreds or thousands of years, these bags will decompose faster than the plastic ones. But, in relative terms, things that are put in the landfill stay put. A claim that a biodegradable bag decomposes in a landfill in 7 days would be false (in a compost pile maybe, but not in a landfill).

Landfill operators don't want stuff to degrade because that affects the integrity of the fill site. You can dig into a pile of trash that is 50 years old in a landfill, and next to the plastic bags and other evil things people throw away that presumably don't degrade, there are also, unaltered, newspapers, heads of lettuce, and biodegradable pet bags. Landfills are not giant composting piles.

The company Biobags does an adequate job describing the effectiveness of their product in different settings: http://www.biobagusa.com/biodegradable-bags.html

Another question to consider is - what if the bag did degrade? That would presumably just leave the pet waste free in the pile. Any water running through the site, known as leachate, would pick up the contaminants from the pet waste. It does, anyway, but what I'm questioning is the logic that having the bag degrade somehow makes the problem disappear.

I would say to save your money on the biodegradable bags, but it seems most brands offered at the store have incorporated this clever marketing ploy into their product. I personally just use a pooper scooper, which gets emptied into our lined trash can.

posted by thefeltmouse on September 25th 2008 at 9:18am
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