plastic bags for dog poo-how can we eliminate this?

[counterGOPI]

we just got a puppy in january and very gross but puppies eat their own poo so we have to clean it up when she goes in our yard right away. dh uses plastic grocery bags to do this. we were using only cloth bags when we went shopping but now b/c of htis hes getting TONS of plastic bags what can we do differently to stop using plastic bags for this?TIA!

[utopia760]

get a pooper scooper! or buy degradeable bags

[counterGOPI]

yeah we were thinking about the pooper scooper but then how do you throw away the waste?

[insahmniak]

I've heard about little septic systems you can bury in your backyard for dog poo. I've heard they work well, but don't know about chemicals involved. Might be worth looking into.

[SharonAnne]

We have a garbage can in our backyard dedicated to dog waste. It's covered and whatnot, so you only get a smell when you open it We line it with a regular garbage bag. When our dog goes, we pick it up with the pooper scooper, and drop it right into the garbage can. Then we put the bag out with our regular trash.

Ideally, I'd love to be able to flush it and not send it to a landfill, but that's just not feasible. Although if someone else has found a way to do this without tracking poop through your house, I'd love to hear about it

[tracyhos]

I was going to suggest a pooper-scooper too.

As for what to do with it...well, we just throw it over our fence. Don't freak out! It's still our property behind the fence. We don't have our whole yard fenced in, just part of it. I wouldn't throw dog poo in someone else's yard.

[Think of Winter]

We scoop it up with toilet paper and toss it in the toilet. I figure a little tp is better than throwing out a plastic bag. I used to share an office w/ a wastewater expert. I keep meaning to write to him and make sure that the typical ww treatment plant would have no trouble with pet waste. I can't see why it would, though.

[queenjulie]

Originally Posted by insahmniak

I've heard about little septic systems you can bury in your backyard for dog poo. I've heard they work well, but don't know about chemicals involved. Might be worth looking into.

The chemicals are just bacteria, so they're actually very natural, not like harsh synthetic cleansers or anything. We used to have one of these systems, and it works great if you don't have clay dirt--clay doesn't let water in and out enough. You put in a couple of tablespoons of the "activator" (that is, the bacteria stuff) once a week along with a gallon of water or so, and it dissolves the poop. Ours would have been perfect, except for our clay dirt didn't allow the dissolved poop to just drain into the rest of the soil, so we tended to get flies. But with better dirt, that wouldn't have happened.

[AuntLavender]

Here's one person's interesting article on this subject

http://www.nrdc.org/thisgreenlife/08...FQWysgodDx8hRA

Personally we use a doggy dooley. You dig a hole (we used a post hold digger) in the ground in your yard away from your house and your veggie garden if you have one and you put the plastic container (at least ours was made in the USA). You add water and enzymes once a week. Ours has a foot step to open it and it came with a scooper. We have two medium size dogs and it works great!

http://www.amazon.com/Dooley-3000-Se.../dp/B0002DI35E

[pazerific]

here's a DIY version of what AuntLavender is talking about. i haven't put one in yet (the ground is still frozen here), but i've heard great things about them and it looks simple enough.

[smeisnotapirate]

We have a compost for doggy doo, but it may not work if your pup still eats his/her poo. We flush our cat poo down the toilet, though. That seems to be the most economical for us, so maybe it'll work for you.

Have you tried feeding raw? When we switched Clara to raw, she stopped eating her own poo.

[caltonhuynh]

I have heard that it is not safe to flush cat poo in particular. If I had time I would look it up, but it was because of some disastrous effect in the ocean. It was a question I posted a while ago. You might want to look into it.

[AuntLavender]

The scoop on cat poop

Originally Posted by caltonhuynh

I have heard that it is not safe to flush cat poo in particular. If I had time I would look it up, but it was because of some disastrous effect in

http://www.nrdc.org/thisgreenlife/08...ysgodDx8hRAthe ocean. It was a question I posted a while ago. You might want to look into it.

Now, here's the scoop on cat poop. EPA brochures and a variety of other publications say you can flush it down the toilet, minus the litter.

However, research suggests that the eggs of Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite found in cat poop, may survive the wastewater treatment process and contaminate waterways.

While Toxoplasma rarely affects healthy people, it can cause defects and brain damage in babies whose mothers were exposed when pregnant. Brain disease can also develop in people with compromised immune systems.

In addition, Toxoplasma has been shown to harm sea otters and may affect other wildlife as well. As the eggs can last for up to a year in soil, burying cat poop is also problematic.

For this reason, researchers working in the field recommend keeping cats indoors and disposing of waste and litter in the trash in sealed plastic bags.

[JamSamMom]

Originally Posted by AuntLavender

Now, here's the scoop on cat poop. EPA brochures and a variety of other publications say you can flush it down the toilet, minus the litter.

However, research suggests that the eggs of Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite found in cat poop, may survive the wastewater treatment process and contaminate waterways.

While Toxoplasma rarely affects healthy people, it can cause defects and brain damage in babies whose mothers were exposed when pregnant. Brain disease can also develop in people with compromised immune systems.

In addition, Toxoplasma has been shown to harm sea otters and may affect other wildlife as well. As the eggs can last for up to a year in soil, burying cat poop is also problematic.

For this reason, researchers working in the field recommend keeping cats indoors and disposing of waste and litter in the trash in sealed plastic bags.

So what type of sealed plastic bag is best? I tie up grocery bags every day after I clean the litter box. So I am stuck getting plastic grocery bags instead of using my own cloth bags for now. Is it better to use a ziploc type bag that will not leak? I mean sometimes the grocery plastic bags have small holes in the bottom....but I throw them into a larger plastic trash bag.

[Chalex]

One thing we try to use for our backyard, instead of plastic bags, is dogfood bags.
We also do this when cleaning up the cats litter box.
I'm not sure how 'green' this is, but the food bags seem to be just layers of paper and a thin film.

[JamSamMom]

Originally Posted by Chalex

One thing we try to use for our backyard, instead of plastic bags, is dogfood bags.
We also do this when cleaning up the cats litter box.
I'm not sure how 'green' this is, but the food bags seem to be just layers of paper and a thin film.

Great Idea! I mean we have to throw the dog food bags away anyhow because we cannot recycle them here.

[hibana]

If you know anyone with a farm that uses bagged feed, you can ask them for some empty bags.

[UUMom]

Nobody freak or anything, but I always flushed solid puppy poo. If the dog is not huge, you can keep flushing it. You have to clean it up, no matter. If it's in your yard as opposed to having to carry it home from a walk, flushing it is no more difficult than throwing it in the trash...you can use toilet paper to pick it up, or use cloth if you're cloth users.

[Caittune]

I house/dog sit for a woman who has a chocolate lab. She has an old ice cream bucket that she shovels the poop into and takes it inside to flush. The only problem that I ran into was when it was freezing out and I missed a couple of days of scooping. I kinda clogged the toilet with frozen doggie poops!

Here we are actually told not to dispose of it in the trash for health reasons.

[brightonwoman]

how cool! I had never heard of the little septic tanks! SWEET!! We're gonna need to look into that!
Right now we just get biodegradable poo bags from the pet store...it's a simpler solution because we live in an apartment and don't have any yard of our own, so all poos are when we are 'out' and away from home on a walk or whatever. But we won't be in an apartment forever!!
thanks for this thread!!