What To Do When Your Dog Just Has To Go?

The following information has been provided by our very own board member Dr. Michael Black.  The information is timely since we get this question asked virtually every-time we host one of our “Plastic Awareness” programs.  When folks ask us about what to use instead of plastic bags to pick up their dog poop, Dr. Black has found some great options.

Our number one choice is Flush Puppies: THE OFFICIAL DOG DOODIE BAGS OF MOTHER EARTH!

Flush Puppies doodie bags are 100% biodegradable and flushable. Yes, really… flushable. Made from Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) – a water soluble, eco-friendly, “green” alternative to plastic – Flush Puppies are specifically made to dispose of doggie doodie down the toilet. (It’s science, people – not voodoo!) Unlike plastic bags or other “biodegradable” bags, Flush Puppies actually biodegrade in water and in landfills.

Here is a link where you can buy them on Amazon: FLUSH PUPPIES – 3-pack “wallet style” (60 bags total) – Flush-able & Biodegradable Dog Waste / Poop Bags

There are also plenty of biodegradable bags currently on the market such as BioBag.  Here we have also added a link to Amazon in case you want to look at these: BioBag Dog Waste Compost-able Bags

“Flush Puppies seem the best ‘said Dr. Black’ because flushing the waste is the best way to go since I don’t see many people composting the waste, but they might flush it (and if they threw it out, it would be better than the Bio Bags because it would take less space, but the Flush Puppies cost quite a bit (15 cents a bag). BioBags are about 10 cents each.”

There is a cheaper alternative (3.3 cents each) from a company called Bow-Wow-Waste but these are OXO-biodegradeable, which means they degrade quickly into tiny pieces of plastic and metal (not so great, in my mind).

Here is an explanation of what is meant by OXO-biodegradable: Oxo Biodegradable (OXO) plastic is polyolefin plastic to which has been added amounts of metal salts. These catalyze the natural degradation process to speed it up so that the OXO plastic will degrade resulting in micro-fragments of plastic and metals which will remain in the environment but will not be seen as a visual contaminant. The degradation process is shortened from hundreds of years to years and/or months for degradation and thereafter biodegradation depends on the micro-organisms in the environment.

The same is true for these bags found on 911-Save Beans: 2000 Dog Poop Bags EZ Tie Handles (BLUE)

A lot of the “biodegradable” bags are biodegradable, which is not really any better than regular plastic, in my opinion.

Check out the latest study on OXO-biodegradable from our friends at The Ellen MacArthur Foundation: OXO-DEGRADABLE PLASTIC PACKAGING IS NOT A SOLUTION TO PLASTIC POLLUTION, AND DOES NOT FIT IN A CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Anyway, we hope this will help you in your search for finding an environmentally responsible alternative to the age old stand-in ‘single use shopping bags’.

From all of us at OMG, thanks for caring 😉