Dog poo bags

I live in a dog-friendly city and I just wonder how many plastic poo bags are out there.

That is an interesting question.

Do you have a suggestion for something to use instead of the plastic ones?  Paper bags might work.

Has anyone tried using paper bags for dog poop?

I would take mine home and put the poop in a designated compost pile.

Paper would very quickly soak up the moisture from the poop and become messy and smelly and unsanitary.

You could compost it, but I would definitely not use that anywhere near edible plants - too many potential diseases like giardia and leptospirosis that could transmit to humans. That pile would also smell HORRENDOUS compared to composting vegetarian animals' poop (eg sheep, goats, even horses).

Most municipal systems don't want you flushing dog poop into the sewer, also because of potential disease risk.

I think the best we can do is reuse plastic bags whenever we can - use bags that would otherwise have already gone to the landfill, and use the same bag for multiple poops until it's full.

If you're talking about cleaning up a backyard (rather than when dogs poop during walks), you can use a rake and scoop to put it into a bigger bin with a single liner, rather than using many individual bags.

Humans are omnivores also. If we can safely compost humanure, we can design and build a system for doggie-doo that will be safe. A small version of Paul's wheelie bin system where the poop dries and then sits for 2 years and then gets composted sounds like a reasonable place to start. Layers of poo with layers of sawdust would likely control any smell. If sawdust isn't available, I'd suggest coir - renewable even though it's shipped in. When it's time to do the composting phase, I'd do it at the base of an ornamental tree or shrub, plenty of "browns" at the bottom and sides, then poor in the poop, adding greens to kick start the decomposing as you go, then top with more browns.

For more information, try reading "Holy Shit" by Gene Logsdon, or "the Humanure Handbook".

Neither of those books suggest it, but the doggie equivalent of a worm bin using slugs, might have merit. Mind you, I live where the local slugs are enormous (search Banana slug).

As for collecting, one's own yard has many options - my friend's son prefers the two handed scoop and tray system, but another friend has one of those grabby things that looks like a kids toy but in fact is not - looks like a mouth with teeth. Neither of these requires bending down, which the baggies system does.

Collecting on walks is trickier.  I'd be thinking a small bucket with a lid and a trowel might be the way to go. So much depends on quantity - one small dog is a different matter compared to 3 standard poodles!

We use bags made of constarch polymer. They practically dissolve in the soil and after a few months we can't find a trace. We make a shallow pit in an out of the way area under trees, toss the bags in each day and cover with leaves, grass clippings and topsoil when it gets full. Dig another pit, lather, rinse, repeat....

Phil Stevens wrote:We use bags made of constarch polymer. They practically dissolve in the soil and after a few months we can't find a trace. We make a shallow pit in an out of the way area under trees, toss the bags in each day and cover with leaves, grass clippings and topsoil when it gets full. Dig another pit, lather, rinse, repeat....

Where can one buy these bags?

I have a friend who breeds Great Danes here in the city. Pony-sized dogs, you can imagine the quantity of feces. She has a sewage line access in the ground in her kennel area, where she shovels it in and hoses it away. Obviously, double lidded to avoid sewage gas coming out. Not sure of the legality of such things, it was made custom for her and I live in a place where code/construction stuff is only very rarely inspected).
Still, I would imagine any problems the municipal water treatment people would have with accepting non-human poo are related to people tossing in plastic bags or other non-poo things.  
We also use biodegradable poop bags. They cost a bit more in the store, but the way things are going all plastic bags will eventually be outlawed here, there are more and more manufacturers making bags out of different kinds of starches (corn, cassava), sugarcane waste, etc.

On your own property a simple hole in the ground a dedicated shovel and a dedicated bucket work absolutely fine.  But when out walking it is harder, I would think any compostable "plastic" bag would work. I don't use them because we rarely take the dogs out anywhere where we would need bags and compostable bags go off over time.

Anne Miller wrote:Paper bags might work.

Has anyone tried using paper bags for dog poop?

I would take mine home and put the poop in a designated compost pile.

Using paper bags might be dependent on the size of the dog and what the dog eats.

They would work fine for me.  I don't have a reason to use them as I have 40 acres of mostly 50% trees, which are junipers and oaks.

I walk the dog on the sunny side of the house. There is a slight ditch that was here when we bought the house so I don't know what the purpose was.

The side of the house and the ditch are landscaped with white pea gravel.  I trained the dog to do her business there.  When it rains the poop gets washed away.

If I was able to compost which I can't because of wind and drought, I would have a doggie poop compost pile away from edibles.

Any poop that I sometimes pick up gets deposited under the juniper tree which probably gets some benefit from the poop.

"stick and flick" away from the pathway, into bushes nobody (including kids) are likely to go is a good strategy when somewhere in the countryside.

At home, digging a big hole and filling it, then covering over with soil, is probably a good way to go - but well away from any edibles, as Juniper already said. My approach would be to treat it like humanure.

We have used compostable plastic bags but I confess that I've never waited to see how well they break down.

I'm generally quite suspicious about bioplastics as the legal definition of "biodegradable" involves a maximum (or average, I don't recall) particle size after a period of time - it says nothing about the potential toxicity or the potential for these particles to stick around in perpetuity as microplastics.

On a related note, I recently read how many important wildlife habitats in the UK are being degraded due to the amount of nitrogen produced by visiting dogs and their pee/poop. It is worth considering that, in nitrogen-sensitive areas (near water, wildflower meadows, etc.) taking the poo away with you (and trying to dispose of it conscientiously) may be the best approach (rather than flicking it out of sight).

Oh, and I've used large leaves in the past (instead of the "stick" in my first method). It takes a bit of courage but, thankfully, I've never had it go wrong. Not a solution for longer journeys though!!

This thread makes me think of a permie solution to dog poop, not applicable in a city, but if you have a need for it, might be worth trying...
Using pet poop to accelerate the decomposition of tree stumps