|  The worst thing that could happen to those name-brand shoes would be to step in a fresh baked sidewalk pie. But worst than that, dog poop is extremely harmful to your health, the environment and ground water.
Think of everyone you know, and how many of those people in the United States have at least one dog. If your math were correct that would be about 63%, according to the Humane Society, which reports that at 74.8 million people own dogs, an over-population of dogs is mounting in the country. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that each dog poops about 274 pounds per year. No need to do the math this time - that amounts to a big-island of poop.
Lookin’ Green estimates that if only one-half of the doggy-pies got picked-up, billions of pounds of poop would still end up in our ground water systems. On top of that, if pick-up poop was tightly tied and in plastic bags, the result would be billions of pounds of lethal poop gas and pathogens stashed in the trash.
Maria Kusar from Los Angeles, California. realized that safely picking up and tying up her dogs’ poop in plastic bags was not so safe after all, and may have even been more harmful than leaving it for pedestrians to squish. That thought sent Kusar e-looking. And in 2007, she founded Walk the Dog, maker of the Bio Pick-up Bag and pet care accessories.
“We didn’t like the fact that the plastic we refused at the check-out, was essentially the very same we were putting our dog poop in,” Kusar told L'G. “This created a need for us to come up with our own waste bags. After much research we found a safe solution.”
Kusar discovered a biodegradable waste product with a water-soluble film, made from Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA/PVOH), which could be specially formulated to hold pet waste with a small quantity of water content, similar to the bags used for hospital laundry. “The magic with our biodegradable bags is that they flush with the poop into the toilet and go straight to the sewer instead of to the landfill,” Kusar said.
In a 1997 study conducted by the USDA to support composting of dog waste, health risks were intensified for those involved in the composting process, which in and of itself is a hotbed for mold, fungus spores, and diseases like Cholera and Dysentery.
The USDA report cautioned that of the many pathogens and parasites people encountered when composting dog waste, the primary agent for disease was roundworm eggs. The report warms to not make contact with the eggs.
The irony here is that worm eggs are too small to be seen with the naked eye. Further “if humans ingest the eggs [pathogens], they hatch in the intestine and migrate to other body tissue like lungs, liver, and spinal cord. The larvae can even attack the retinas in the eye,” according to the USDA. In that regard, Lookin’ Green suggests thinking thrice before wallowing around where your dog goes to potty.
Dumping pet waste with your everyday trash or burying it underground does not prevent waterborne bacterial contamination and pathogen growth. Biodegradable bags, however, allow dog owners to pick-up, dispose of, and treat dog poop just like human waste, by utilizing existing wastewater and sewer systems.
Caution #1. Regular plastic bags cannot be flushed and will clog sewer systems, so please do not attempt to flush anything other than biodegradable items into a sanitary sewer. Caution #2. Cat poop or litter is not the same as dog poop. Cat waste is even more lethal to health and the environment, and should never be flushed in the sewer system, regardless of using biodegradable bags for pick-up. Kusar’s bio-bags pick up poop like any other bag, they do not leak or spill, and are safe to flush like toilet paper. And if there is no access to flush your dog waste in a toilet facility, biodegradable bags are yet your best bet.
Bio bags on the market today degrade within two years. Kusar’s bags are expected to degrade in 90 days or less. The only inescapable with biodegradable flushable pick-up poops bags – you still need to wash your hands with soap and clean water after the duty. And watch out for sidewalk or lawn pies. |
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