Clean without polluting: what are the best bags to pick up your dog’s droppings?

Having a dog involves many responsibilities. Among them, a very ungrateful one: to be their official poop collector. A title you probably never dreamed of or wished for, but which is nevertheless granted to you as soon as your dog walks through your door to the outside. In fact, it appears explicitly on the government site Register your pet : “Anyone who has a pet or pet must provide food, health management, pick up and dispose of excrement.”

Whether you live in a house with a terrace or in an apartment, yes or yes you will end up picking up feces. The difference is time: when you have your own patio, if your dog’s poo stays on you for a few days, it’s not that bad, maybe just stinky. Many people forget to pick them up, and when they do, they look like dark, stiff lime figures.

In an apartment the story is different, because the collection involves rigor: whether you are on your terrace or in the street, you have to pick up the stool and hope to throw it away as soon as possible. These spaces are shared, and therefore, we must respect them. Their excrement, in addition to giving off a bad smell and attracting flies, can spread diseases such as tapeworms, intestinal worms, giardia and E.coli, and even salmonella, to name only the most well-known. Just as we take care of our hygiene, we must take care of our furry friend, who deserves to live in a clean and hygienic environment.

As we said, rigor must be in order because poo is a lot: it is estimated that 83 million domestic dogs in the United States produce approximately 10.6 million tonnes of faeces each year . In Chile, according to a calculation in a report published in 2014 , more than 35 kilos per day were generated in the streets of Santiago alone. Imagine now.

Surely, picking up your pet’s poop is not one of your highest priorities in life. But it is important to do it in the best possible way, starting with the choice of collection bags. When you walk around, as a universal law, you should always carry these bags in order to effectively collect the “gifts” from our pets. Little is said, yes, of the types of bags that exist on the market.

Ciro, my dog, has an excellent digestion, so when we walk around the parks, his cargo is bagged and thrown away in the conventional way. But when I do, I always think about the amount of plastic bags that are spent on this task. How is it that by cleaning an environment we pollute more? Fortunately, today there are better alternatives to a traditional bag, so here we are going to delve into its materialities and the interesting options that we can opt for in our country.

By definition, a biodegradable product is a product capable of decomposing naturally, without harming the environment or requiring the addition of chemicals. In theory, these materials will completely disappear from the Earth after a while, becoming part of nature.

It’s a concept we’ve seen embodied in various packaging and products in recent years. However, if you opt for this type of bag to collect your pet’s droppings, this alternative is not the most durable of all. Although far better than a plastic bag, which can take ages to decompose, a 2019 study showed that bags marked biodegradable took up to three years or more to break down in soil or water.

As their name suggests, these bags are able to enter a composting process: that is, they degrade as if they were organic waste, even enriching the soil with its nutrients. .

They are usually made from vegetable starch and contain no plastic, so they dissolve much faster. In the same study cited above, it took three months for the compostable bags to dissolve in water. The big downside is the price, as they usually come at a much higher cost compared to biodegradable or traditional plastics. But if we compare it, the environmental cost is infinitely less compared to the other options.

Something that stands out in the specialized environment flayer is that “all compostable materials are necessarily biodegradable – since they can be digested by micro-organisms – but not everything that is biodegradable will become a good quality fertilizer”.

To ensure that these bags are truly compostable, there are European certifications issued by TÜV Austria-Vinçotte, the main verification agency on this continent:

• OK Biodegradable : This certification determines the time necessary for biodegradation and which medium is necessary for it: water, air or earth.
• Ok Compost : this seal means that the product is compostable. Within it, there are two categories: OK Compost Home , which certifies that it is possible to make compost at home; Yes OK Industrial compost with which an industrial composting plant is needed to achieve this.

This alternative is one of the most used: although it is the most comfortable and practical for the pocket, it is the one that can cost the environment the most. A UN report on plastic pollution, says that this material it represents 85% of the waste that reaches the oceans and warns that, by 2040, the volumes that will flow into the sea will triple, with an annual quantity of between 23 and 37 million tonnes. To put it simply: about 50 kg of plastic per meter of coastline in the world. Reducing its use is important, so opting for other bag alternatives is an action in favor of the preservation of the earth.

This is another alternative, perhaps less comfortable, but widely used abroad. However, it is also not the most environmentally friendly, because although paper degrades more easily than plastic, a lot of energy is spent to make a bag from this material. According to research in the UK it takes more than four times as much energy to make a paper bag as to make a plastic bag.

In many cases, paper bags are reusable: you can carry your purchases, store snacks or food, equipment, or even wrap gifts. But if they’re used to picking up poo, then their multiple lives are reduced to one. Now, if you have a lot of these bags at home and you don’t use them, then it’s clearly better than a plastic bag. You just have to be careful that they don’t break or get wet while you’re picking them up.

We already know that the ideal is to opt for compostable and biodegradable bags, but this natural decomposition will not only occur when buying them. In order for them to turn into compost or degrade, these bags filled with organic matter must be brought into the right container, which for the moment is not easily done in Chile.

If you plan to compost your bagged excrement yourself, it’s not an easy path. Specialists generally recommend hot compost and keep the container away from your home, so you need a large space to do this.

Another point to consider is that the manure of carnivorous animals is not the same as that of herbivores, such as cows or horses. It is difficult to break down and attracts other types of germs which can be dangerous to people.

“If you decide to compost this way, we recommend that you only use your own pets’ poop: you never know what diseases other pets may have.” write in Edgar Cooper a natural pet food company.

But as often happens, in other parts of the world they have already thought about this problem. In Malvern, a town in England, engineer Brian Harper has built a machine that converts this waste light into biogas, thereby powering a local street lamp. “Gaslight captures people’s imaginations and shows them that dog poo has value,” he explains in an interview with Guardian . Calculate that 10 sachets will turn on the light for two hours each night.

In summary: if we opt for compostable and biodegradable options, and these end up in the landfill, the package will end its journey in the landfill, where it will begin its decomposition process. The difference, given the scientific study we mentioned earlier, is that the compostable bag will degrade before the biodegradable.

SeComposta bags are made with vegetable starches, are non-toxic and have TÜV Austria Home Compost and Compostable certifications [H]. There are 15 sachets 23×33 cm per roll, and the box contains 8 rolls. In other words, 120 compostable bags to collect your pet’s waste without impacting the environment. Price of each bag: 36 pesos.

The company I Am Not Plastic also offers its alternative to 100% compostable and plastic-free poop bags. They come in 40 bags of 23x33cm, and they claim they have “optimal insulation properties”. Price of each bag: 99 pesos.

MasCan’s compostable sanitary bags are made with cornstarch, which is why they are yellow. They say they are super tough. There are ten bags per roll and this pack includes 8 rolls, so that would be 80 units per pack. Price of each bag: 69 pesos.

These bags are made with cornstarch, which is of course 100% compostable and plant-based. As well as using them to collect your pet’s excrement, they can be used for other purposes, such as collecting organic waste – fruit or vegetable scraps, for example. The pack comes with 8 rolls and 15 bags each. So there are 120 bags in total. Price of each bag: 58 pesos.

It’s an invention that went through Shark Tank and succeeded: they are sheets made from unbleached recycled paper, obtained from softwood pulp. They are made with renewable energy, so they would have a sustainable manufacturing process, and the product is 100% biodegradable and compostable. They have an oil and grease resistant coating, which makes the difference with a normal paper bag. This way, your pet’s gift stays on the paper and not in your hands. It is said to degrade in 6 weeks. They come 50 sheets and measure 30×30 cm. Price of each: 419 pesos (plus postage).

As mentioned earlier, if it is in good condition, paper that has already had a first or second life can be used as fecal collection material. in this >connections < explain step by step how to make a cap out of newspaper. It's not difficult but there is a risk of staining your fingers. Price of each bag: free.

*Product prices in this item are updated as of February 26, 2023. Values ​​and availability may change.