And on the Subject of Poop…

I consulted some other service dog owners and learned that not only can you purchase bags specifically for the purpose of picking up your dog’s poop, you can purchase special (more expensive) biodegradable poop bags.  If you prefer, you can use bags meant for babies’ diapers, which come in cute colors.  You can even get lavender scented ones, if you want.  Seriously.  I couldn’t make that up.  I never would have dreamed of lavender scented poop bags.

Biodegradable sounds good, but the reality is that many biodegradable things do not actually biodegrade in a landfill, which is where they often end up.  Things that would biodegrade if buried in healthy soil don’t necessarily biodegrade when enclosed in non-biodegradable plastic trash bags and surrounded by tons of other non-biodegradable garbage.  Plus, there is still energy (and pollution) expended in manufacturing, packaging, and transporting biodegradable poop bags across the country.

Someone suggested using plastic bags that things like bread and rolls come in.  I don’t know why I hadn’t considered that.  I don’t eat a lot of bread, we probably use less than one loaf every two weeks in my house, and unfortunately a dog will poop more than once every two weeks.  But I started thinking about other things that come in bags I could reuse, bags that normally end up in my trash, and thus in a landfill, anyway.  Bags that snacks come in, like chips and popcorn.  The bags that cereal comes in, inside the cereal boxes.  The bags I get from the pharmacy with my  medication bottles inside (they have it bagged up and the bag stapled shut when I show up to pick the medications up, so bringing my own bag doesn’t do any good).  The plastic bags newspapers are delivered in (I don’t get the newspaper, but I have neighbors that do, and they would probably save the bags for me if I asked).  The plastic bags maxi pads come in.  The plastic wrapping toilet paper comes in.  OK, this works for me.