But we have drawn up a plan for a simple compost heap, and will be using up our collection of paper bags and cardboard in place of plastic as we get it going. My efforts at handicrafts do not, alas, extend to building an anaerobic digester, so until this idea comes to light the trails of California I will have to wait. I want to see this idea spread around the world and make a significant contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases – as well as the problem of dog poo on our shoes.” And it’s also a big reducer of the plastic bag problem. “But we grab the methane at source, and don’t transport the waste or send it to an incinerator that gobbles up even more energy. Dog poo goes straight to landfill, and becomes a major contributor to the methane gas that comes out of landfill,” he says. “I reckon that conservatively one in five dogs are having their poo picked up in plastic bags. He estimates that 10 bags of poo will power a lamp for two hours, and is planning four sizes of biodigester – possibly even creating a BBQ add-on. He’s had interest from around the world, including on the east and west coasts of the US, and is working with 12 international partners to provide the K9 Bio System to parks and cities that want to address the dog poo problem in this brilliantly novel way. But that temperature should kill most bacteria, including the toxoplasmosis found in cat poo.” It has to be maintained, turned over, and not become too moist. With grass clippings it can reach 60☌ (140☏).
Compostable bags will rot in three months in a properly managed compost heap,” she says. “Compost heaps are one of the best environments for breaking down waste because they have so many microbes, the microorganisms that can process waste.
Professor M Leigh Ackland is a molecular biologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and has been successfully composting her dog’s poo for 25 years in her domestic garden compost heap. But then I spoke to two rather brilliant people with two very different solutions. I was beginning to wonder if I should just get rid of the dog. Bacteria from dog poo regularly causes algal bloom and can shut down beaches for swimming or for shellfishing. Additionally, if I was to bury my dog’s waste somewhere close to a watershed, pathogens could be released into the ground water which then end up in rivers and in the sea. Even my compostable bags need to be in the unique microbial environment of a pungent, rotting down compost heap. (But what would I then do with the soiled bag anyway?)īurying is not the same as composting. That rules out the otherwise sensible suggestion of carrying my dog’s poo home and flushing it. But I also called our local utility firm EMMUD and they said emphatically that only human poo, pee and paper should be put down the toilet. I have dodgy plumbing (in the house, not personally) and wouldn’t risk using a flushable dog poo bag. Apart from being unpleasant, the CDC says that dog waste can spread diseases including campylobacter, tapeworm, hookworm, roundworm, giardia and E.coli, and more rarely salmonella. There’s an estimated 900 million dogs in the world, and 89.7 million pet dogs in the US alone. Part of the reason we have to pick it up is because there’s just a disproportionate number of dogs. I also want to be honest and say that for about three days I tried flicking it into the bushes instead when on rural walks (let the hate mail commence) until my research confirmed that this was a terrible idea. Let’s be clear that trying to reduce your consumption of plastics is categorically not a reason to stop picking up your dog’s poo.
And it’s hard to pick out of the soles of your shoes or your child’s hair as a result of someone who couldn’t be arsed to clear up after their animal. And finding the best answer is not as straightforward as you might think.ĭog poo, it turns out, is a massively emotive and popular issue, both for dog owners and dog haters. Every time I’ve stood patiently watching my dog toothpaste-out his morning dump, I’ve worried more and more about the best solution.
What we’re actually doing is preserving organic matter in an ecologically expensive plastic bag and sending it to an environment – a landfill – where it cannot decompose. In fact, they are a very short-term fix with terrible long-term implications. As is so often the case with “convenience”, dog poo bags feel like a tidy solution.