What to do with the doo

If you have a dog, you’ll be familiar with picking up dog poop (hopefully!).

While local supermarkets have already said goodbye to the common soft plastic bag, the blanket ban of plastic bags comes in on the 1st of July and will hit all retail stores.

This leaves many dog owners asking questions about how to best manage their pet’s waste. Should you use biodegradable bags? Can you compost it? Can you flush it?

Here’s the scoop on your dog’s poop.

There’s no doubt about it; if you have a dog, you have to pick up it’s poo. Not only does leaving it to decompose naturally create a messy and smelly environment, it’s a safety risk and can harm humans and other pets with various worms, parasites and harmful bacteria.

In order to be as environmentally responsible as possible, there are a couple of ways owners can make a difference when managing dog poo. You can pick it up by using what you already have; think old bread bags, used zip lock bags and frozen veg bags or go one step further and use containers that you can rinse and repeat with.

As a general rule, stay away from flushing your dog’s poop. It really depends on what water treatment plant your waste goes to, but flushing dog poop can upset water balance due to the high levels of BOD (biological oxygen deprivation). 

The easiest (and best!) option is to use a bag that’s better for the environment! Although many of the dog poo bags that you can buy from the supermarket are made from plastic, compostable bags will do the trick with no environmental damage; there’s just a couple of things to keep in mind.

It’s important to check what kind of biodegradable bag you have. Many bags are often labelled as compostable, but you’ll need one that has the ability to be composted at home, like these Eco Bag Earth Rated Compostable Dog Poop Bags. Commercial composters don’t accept dog waste, but these will help you manage that poop in a safe and simple way- all in the comfort of your own garden- just add the bag of poop into a composting system that won’t be used for the fruit and veggie patch; it’s best to keep this compost for flowers and trees only.

Making your own compost system is simple- all you need is a bucket, a spade, soil and some worms. Dig a hole in the ground big enough to slot your bucket in to- you’ll want to put it in the hole and have it level with the ground. Pack the dirt around the sides of the bucket and add your poop bag. Pop some extra soil in your bucket (to aid with the degradation process), along with some worms, put the lid on and you’re away!

Things to remember

• Reduce, reuse, recycle- or compost!
• Only use home compostable bags like THESE!
• Add some dirt to the bag!
• Use your compost for flower gardens and trees
• Don’t flush what’s not yours