End The Plastic With That Poo: Pooch Pick-up Bags
Published by Alex April 11th, 2007 in Chores. Share This
One thing I hate about living in the city is the constant need, when walking about the residential areas, to monitor my step in order to avoid stepping in dog crap. I think the fines against those who don’t clean up after their dogs needs to be raised incrementally every year until people get it. Yes, it’s totally disgusting to put your bagged hand on warm poop, but after a week or so I’d assume that most people get used to it. But here’s the flip side of that coin: Almost all of us who are responsible this way are being rather irresponsible in another, in that we tend to use plastic shopping bags for the deed. Why wrap it in plastic, are we preserving the shit for posterity? There are alternatives, and one of the best and cheapest are Pooch Pick-Up Bags.
These biodegradable jobs are made from cornstarch and are totally eco-friendly, breaking down in landfills easily, and excellent at their function. They come with handles that tie up smart, containing all odorous evidence of the nasty within. They also come in scented and unscented models, in case you need that extra psychological defense against the act of touching dookie. They hide nicely in a pocket or a handbag, and at 100 bags for five bucks, you can’t go wrong. The bags, and subsequently, the crap, breaks down within a month, much unlike the plastic shopping bag which doesn’t really break down at all within our lifetimes. Turds wrapped in those guys will outlive us!
Pooch Pick-up Bags [amazon.com]
Related: There’s an enormous movement brewing that is calling for people to cease all together the accepting of plastic bags which are so commonly used by bodegas, grocery stores, and most other retailers. The logic is sound: They do not break down in landfills, they are wasteful, they are made out of petroleum and therefore costly to our ever-dwindling supplies, and they simply contribute to greater pollution. When was the last time you saw one stuck in a tree, yesterday? Cut ‘em out of your life wherever possible. It’s easy as hell to carry a reusable bag, or the net-style expandable bag the likes of which the Europeans have been using for decades.
GODAMNIT
I came up w/ this idea about 3 weeks ago after stepping in some poop. I lose.
people use plastic bags to pick up poop for the same reason they use rubber gloves at the doctor’s office, and for the same reason we wear condoms when we have sex. it’s a non-porous barrier between our hands and biologically dangerous material. Granted, plastic bags often have small holes or tears, and we all know how environmentally unfriendly they are, but that’s why i use them to pick up dog poo instead of paper or cornstarch.
One might argue that the time of contact with droppings through cornstarch or paper is considerably less than that which we spend when a doctor uses gloves or a fellow uses a condom. Also, I highly doubt that unless the paper or cornstarch is really porous that there is much chance at all of your fingers coming into direct contact with the dog poo. I think you’d have to actually be massaging the stuff through the material with really sharp fingernails or something to get any actual contamination whatsoever.
I think that people use plastic bags because they’re convenient.
The cornstarch derived plastics are actually quite amazing. Wild Oats Grocery Stores, and I’m sure lots of others I haven’t heard of, use the same type of stuff for their deli department, and I couldn’t tell the difference. I’m sure that the cornstarch derived bags will be sturdy enough to block dog poo from passing through.
i’ve actually been reading a lot on the paper v. plastic thing. it seems that plastic takes a lot longer to decompose (obviously), but paper takes a lot more resources and energy to make. so it’s lose-lose.
i went ahead and got a bunch of cheap tote bags. yeah, you have to buy them, but you are repaid in the feeling and look of moral superiority.
I carry one of these with me:
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?CATID=255&PRODID=74340
They’re great because they fold up small and could easily fit in a pants pocket.
Or, you could try this new dog food that claims to practically eliminate the need for dogs to poo at all:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2284007.html?menu=
I wish they made this for cats.
5 bucks, plus 5 for shipping. Same if you go directly through the KV Vet supply online store. So that makes it 10 bucks for 100. Any way to get them cheaper?
As far as the plastic bags for groceries, what do you do about when you have to fill up a grocery cart? I usually have 5-10 plastic bags….am I supposed to carry that many nylon bags?