Scenario:
The year 2209. (Perhaps a Tuesday?) An intrepid archeologist digging in an American garbage landfill comes upon thousands of preserved plastic baggies of……doggie do? “Boy,” he says, “people in those days saved the damnest things.”
Anybody with a dog has probably considered the question of what to do with all of their pet’s “output.” If you walk your dog on a regular basis you probably have jackets stuffed with plastic bags and eye new purchases that come in the house with “don’t throw that bag away!” (When we switched to resusable bags for groceries, it took months to get rid of the plastic bag stash. Now, I hoarde the few that come in.) I also plan my walking routes through the parks in my neighborhood that have the most trashcans. There’s something vaguely weird about carrying your dog’s poo in a little plastic bag all around the neighborhood.
Anyway, I did some research on what pet owners can do to reduce their dog’s considerable impact upon their back yards and nearby parks. Here’s what I discovered:
1. Urban Agriculture Notes of Canada gives detailed instructions on how to make a pet waste composter for your back yard. Pretty slick, but they do warn that their experience was with one small dog. Also, you can use the compost on ornamental plants but not on food plants. There’s a few other sites that explain the process. Just search on “composting dog poop.”
2. My sister once tried to explain her failure to clean up after her own dog when walking by saying “It’s organic. It will decompose.” Nice try, sis. You should always clean up after your dog in the park or on a trail as the waste gets into storm drains and local waterways, causing bacteria levels that upset algae growth. Not to mention that it looks disgusting all over the place.
3. On their website Ecocycle also advocates scooping waste into plastic bags rather than trying to compost it. They say it’s better for the local ecosystem. Several other city sites advise bagging rather than trying to flush waste or compost it. Flushing it could easily overwhelm the sewer systems and improper composting could pollute local waterways.
There was a lot more, but I started getting kind of grossed out. Scooping the poop is not my favorite pasttime, but my yard is a lot more pleasant if I do it on a regular basis. I was glad to find out that my bagging procedure isn’t all that bad, compared to letting the waste contaminate the storm drains. Just please do all of us a favor: clean up after your dog in the park. Nobody likes to see it, and nobody likes to step in it!
Maggie and I thank you.
