Doggie Poop Bags: All You Need To Know

Updated on November 22, 2023

Overview

CHAPTER 1: Doggie Poop Bags Analysis

Which dog poop bags are best?
How can you choose dog waste bags?

Best ways to dispose of dog feces

CHAPTER 2: Dog Poop, Environment And Health

Why should I scoop my dog's poop?

How long does it take for dog poop to decompose?
How long do dog poop bags take to decompose?

CHAPTER 3: Compost Dog Poop

Can I put compostable dog poop bags in green bin?
How to compost dog poop

What can I use dog poop compost for?

CHAPTER 1: Doggie Poop Bags Analysis

When scooping your dog's poop, there are many options on the market. For this reason, choosing the best dog poop bag can be difficult.

Among the options, you will find:

• Plastic bags for dog poop.
• Biodegradable dog poop bags.
• Compostable bags for dog poop.
• Paper bags for dog poop.

So how do you know which dog poop bag alternative is the best? Let's analyze each option.

Plastic Dog Poop Bags

Plastic bags are made from fossil fuels. Did you know that plastic can take up to 400 years to decompose? Not only that, a large part of the plastic bags become deadly waste in our landfills and, what is worse, they pollute the ocean.

Birds and marine animals end up ingesting pieces of plastic, becoming poisoned, and dying.

Have you ever thought that the fish you eat may have plastic inside? It is not an assumption, but a fact. Human beings consume microplastics through food.

What can you do about it? Avoid the use of plastic bags whenever possible.

Biodegradable Dog Poop Bags

Are biodegradable dog poop bags better than plastic ones? While biodegradable bags should be 100% natural, this is not always the case.

Among its natural ingredients you can also find, in some cases, petroleum derivatives.

Also, biodegradable bags often contain a chemical called EPI to speed up the degradation process. That way, the process occurs faster instead of taking between 1 and 4 years to degrade. This is good, right? Not really because the bag is reduced to small portions, so small that you cannot see them with your eyes.

However, these pieces with petroleum penetrate into the soil and also groundwater. Cleaning an area with plastic microparticles is even more difficult than cleaning it from plastic bags.

Compostable Doggie Poop Bags

All compostable bags are biodegradable, but not all biodegradable bags are compostable.

Compostable dog poop bags are produced with 100% natural elements. In other words, they do not include any petroleum derivatives. For this reason, they can be included in the dog poop compost bin.

Likewise, they do not include EPI or other elements to speed up the decomposition process. In the case of our TÜV Austria Home Compostable Certified Poop Bags, the breakdown process begins at 90 days, and they leave no detectable remains on the ground.

Paper Bags For Dog Poop

Paper is a 100% natural product that does not harm the environment. These dog poop bags disintegrate completely and do not affect the soil or the health of animals.

The paper takes approximately 2-6 weeks to decompose. Of course, it can be a nasty option to pick up dog poop, depending on the size and consistency of your dog's feces.

Check out our Dog Poop Alternative Chart to choice your dog poop bag!

Which Is The Best Dog Waste Alternative?

The choice is yours. If we talk about caring for the environment, there is no doubt that compostable dog poop bags and paper bags are the "greenest" options.

In the first point of our analysis, it has become clear that the best options for the environment are compostable and paper bags.

Let's focus on organic bags, since paper bags have no secrets. How can you make sure you buy a quality organic bag?

1. Do not trust advertisements: not all green packaging is biodegradable or compostable.
2. Take a look at the labels: which are the bag ingredients? Choose one with 100% natural components. 
3. Check out the certifications: TÜV Austria Home Compostable is one of the most famous and guarantees complete biodegradability in the light of specific requirements. You can read all about TÜV Austria here.
4. Inform yourself about the breakdown process: what do the bags need to decompose? How much time does breakdown take? Choose bags that degrade in less than a year, according to ASTM D6400 standards.

Follow the link to get more information about TÜV Austria Biodegradability Certifications.

 More doubts?: Dog Poop Bags: Degradable, Biodegradable Or Compostable?

There are three ways to get rid of your dog's poop:

• Flushing dog poop.
• Throwing dog poop in the trash.
• Composting dog poop.

Let's look at each option separately.

Flush Dog Poop

The US The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Resources Defense Council maintain that the best way to dispose of dog feces is by flushing it in the restroom.

While it is true that this option is better for the environment and human health than leaving dog poop out in the open air to decompose, it is not THE best option for disposing of dog poop.

Let's see why:

1. Experts have determined through extensive research that dog poop contains thousands of pathogens.
2. These pathogens can be a real risk to human health. In fact, humans can get sick from coming into contact with these pathogens. They can cause everything from diarrhea to EED, STH infection, and trachoma.
3. Dog poop can contain cryptosporidium, a parasite that cannot be removed by water purification treatment.

For these reasons, we believe that flushing dog poop is not THE best option, even though some major government agencies recommend it. 

Need more information? Check out our article "Should I Flush Dog Poop?"

Throw Dog Poop In The Trash

While this is not the most environmentally friendly option, it is the easiest way to dispose of dog poop. And it certainly beats leaving dog poop out in the open air.

Now, you should consider using compostable poop bags even if you throw both poops in the trash. Why? Being made with natural ingredients, they do not add plastics to the landfill.

In this way, even if they are not composted because the appropriate parameters for this are not met, they will not contribute to increasing plastic pollution. 

And what happens if the garbage burns? Different studies ensure that the incineration of plastic is a major source of air pollution.

If you throw dog poop in the trash inside plastic bags, they will release toxic gases when burned.

Among the toxic gases, Dioxins, Furans, Mercury and Polychlorinated Biphenyls stand out into the atmosphere.

In short, using compostable bags reduces pollution. Even if they were burned, they would not generate toxic substances, something that does happen with plastic bags.

The toxic substances released by plastic when burned could affect human and animal health and be a threat to vegetation.

Compost Dog Poop

Without a doubt, this is the best option to dispose of dog poop, although it is also the most labor-intensive.

Currently, there are still few facilities that compost dog poop. Therefore, ideally, you should create a dog poop compost bin at home and carry out the composting process yourself.

In this way, you will considerably reduce the carbon paw print of your dog. Do you dare to try it?

🐶 Discover the Myths And Facts of Dog Poop Disposal

CHAPTER 2: Dog Poop, Environment And Health

In 2018, experts calculated a population of approximately 471 million dogs worldwide. How many tons of poop does this number of pups represent? It is difficult to asses it, although it is believed that, on average, each dog eliminates about 300 grams of feces per day, equivalent to 109.5 kilos per year per dog. If we multiplied this result by the number of dogs worldwide, we would get a total so large that my calculator shows it as 5.15745e13.

Dog poop is a serious issue for which we have to find a solution asap.

There are many reasons why you should always pick up after your dog poop, beyond preventing someone from stepping on dog poop.

Let's see some data:

• One gram of dog poop contains around 23 million bacteria.
• Dog poop has been classified as an environmental pollutant by the EPA.
• Dog poop can contaminate waterways.
• About 21.2 billion pounds of dog poop are produced each year in the United States alone.

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Dog poo is a huge global environmental problem.

On average, dog poop can take up to 9 weeks to break down. It will depend on the weather. The hotter it is, the faster it will break down.

During these nine weeks, dog poop can contaminate with bacteria waterways and soil if you don't scoop your dog poop.

Every year, over 3,000 tonnes of dog poop is produced in the UK alone. Can you imagine how many years it can take to degrade? And how many waterways can be contaminated? Picking up dog poop is essential to human health.

A biodegradable dog poop bag can take up to a year to break down. It cannot be certified as biodegradable unless it meets this requirement. The same goes for compostable bags.

However, for the breakdown process to start and the bag to completely decompose, parameters related to temperature and the mixture of carbon and nitrogen elements must be met. This means that compostable and biodegradable bags can take longer to break down in a landfill.

In the particular case of Give a Sh!t dog poop bags, the breakdown process begins after 90 days in the dog poop compost bin.

CHAPTER 3: Compost Dog Poop

The United States Department of Agriculture indicates that it is possible to compost dog poop, but always separately from the usual compost.

Dog feces contain bacteria that require different and careful treatment. For this reason, while it is possible to include dog poop, you should never include dog waste in the green bin.

To compost it, you need to Build a Dog Poop Compost Bin.

So you can put compostable poop bags in a green bin, but it needs to be a green bin just for composting dog waste.

Do you have doubts? Check out Why You Should Compost Dog Poop And Use Compostable Waste Bags.  

Dog poop can be composted. In fact, you should compost dog waste!

However, to do so, certain precautions must be taken. After all, the pathogens present in dog poop could only affect our health.

If you want to compost dog poop at home, you should have:

• Dog poop (collected with compostable doggie poop bags if necessary).
• Sawdust, there is,
• newspaper and/or fallen leaves
• thermometer
• A stick to stir the compost
• to bin
• Toilet
• Shove
• Gloves

How To Compost Dog Waste?

1. Create a compost bin for dog poop following our tutorial and place it in a sunny spot.
2. Pick up your dog's poo with paper or Give a Sh!t compostable doggie poop bags.
3. Place 2 waste shovels and add one shovel of some carbon-rich material (sawdust, hay, newspaper or fallen leaves).
4. Mix.
5. Moisten the mixture.
6. Add ingredients following the 2-1 shovels ratio.
7. Stop adding ingredients when the mixture reaches three feet deep.
8. Cover the mixture and wait for the microbes to work their magic.
9. Take the temperature of the compost once a week. When it goes down, stir.
10. Stir the compost.
11. Repeat the process until the temperature is stable.

Do you want more information? 

🌱 6 Things You Need To Know To Safely Compost Dog Poop At Home

🌿 How To Compost Dog Poop In Your Balcony

Dog poop compost is an excellent fertilizer, as long as the process has been done correctly. It is essential to respect the necessary times for the dog poop to fully compost, reaching high temperatures during the process that manages to eliminate the feces pathogens.

The process would take about two and a half months in the case of composting dog waste without a bag. The amount of time may increase depending on weather conditions.

Those who use compostable bags must wait at least three months to obtain the compost. The amount of time will depend on the chosen compostable bag and whether the necessary parameters for its breakdown have been respected.

In any case, dog poop compost can be used as a fertilizer for grass and non-edible plants.

➡️ Never use dog poop compost to fertilize your vegetables and fruits! 

🌺 Check out: Can Dog Poop Be Used As A Fertilizer?

FAQ

How Do You Control Dog Poop Bags?

To control dog poop bags effectively, choose biodegradable bags for environmental friendliness. Keep a dedicated dispenser attached to your dog's leash for easy access. After scooping the poop, tie the bag securely to prevent spills and odors. Dispose of the bag in designated dog waste bins or general trash cans. Avoid leaving bags on the ground to maintain cleanliness and respect public spaces.

Why Do People Leave Dog Poop Bags On The Ground?

People leave dog poop bags on the ground due to laziness, forgetfulness, or a lack of nearby trash bins. Some might assume they'll pick it up later but forget to do so.

Do Dog Poop Bags Keep Hands Clean?

Yes, dog poop bags are designed to keep hands clean while picking up after dogs. They act as a barrier between the waste and your hand, preventing direct contact and maintaining hygiene.