Respectable dog owners are the owners that pick up after their pup takes a poop.
Even more respectable dog owners are the ones that pick it up with biodegradable dog bags.
Picking up your dogs poop keeps your yard, neighborhood and local parks looking and smelling fresh and clean for visitors.
Dangers of leaving dog waste on the ground It is integral to pick up dog waste regularly.
Picking it up prevents it from sinking into the soil, contaminating the water supply and spreading bacteria into homes and other areas.
Animal waste is one of the most common ways bacteria, primarily the e.
coli virus, is spread into lakes, beaches and homes.
Dangers of using plastic bags for clean up However, using plastic bags to clean it up doesn't do much to solve the problem because plastic is not biodegradable, so the bags are going to sit around in a landfill for thousands of years anyway.
Plastic production releases carcinogens into the air and throwing away plastic bags poses a danger to wildlife.
Birds who pick up plastic thinking it's food will choke or strangle themselves by trying to consume the dangerous material.
Why biodegradable bags are the way to go Using biodegradable dog bags prevents the accumulation of plastic in landfills and allows the bag and waste to biodegrade into the landfill and completely decompose without taking up space.
They are typically made out of corn and other renewable resources that easily break down within a short period of time.
So why doesn't everyone use biodegradable dog bags? Well, many people are not convinced it's an economical decision.
They get a handful of plastic bags each time they visit the grocery store, so using them to pick up poop is a great way to recycle them, right? Plus, buying biodegradable bags costs money and the plastic bags are free.
Hold your horses.
First of all, stop accumulating plastic bags at the grocery store by bringing cloth shopping bags with you.
It cuts down on use of plastic bags and many stores give shoppers a discount if they come in with their own bag.
After a few trips the bags have already paid for themselves.
Not only can you cut down on your plastic bag supply that you feel must be reserved for poop, but at less than 10 cents a bag on average, it's really not much of an economic significance at all to just go and buy a roll of biodegradable dog bags.
The fact that they won't be around FOREVER should be enough incentive, anyway! It's an incredibly inexpensive way to significantly help the environment, especially once you consider how many plastic bags are sitting around in landfills with no chance of ever going away.
It's a significantly small cost when you take into consideration the effort you're making to better the environment.
Biodegradable dog bags are inexpensive, readily available in most pet, grocery and convenience stores, less likely to cause harm to wildlife due to consumption of garbage, quickly biodegradable to cut down on landfills and pollution, and made with renewable resources such as corn.
They prevent the release of carcinogens into the air because they're cutting down on the amount of plastic is consumed.
If you're looking to green up your life, get the dog involved as well.
Who said puppies can't be green?