Don’t Leave Bagged Dog Poop in the Outdoors

Recently, on a hike with a friend, among towering Douglas fir and western hemlock trees, by a glassy, pebble-rich creek, we saw giant plops of black-bear scat every few hundred yards. We were miles from the trailhead. Among the views, among the bear excrement, was a green bag, on a stump: dog droppings. The poop had been scooped, bagged, and then just … left there.

For the past two years, I’ve worked in conservation and preservation at Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area in Stonecrest, Georgia, which includes 16 parks and green spaces. The No. 1 trash offender I find is plastic bottles, which sadly are as ubiquitous as foliage. But a close second is those plastic dog bags, filled with poop.

I cannot go on a hike or lead a tour in our Heritage Area without seeing at least one—if not several—of them. They’re abandoned by pet owners who either intended (and forgot) to pick up their animal’s bagged waste as they returned from their hike, or have been sold a plastic product with terms like “biodegradable” and “compostable” that suggest their bags of choice are way more Earth-friendly than they are. Or the poop bags are left by people who simply don’t care.

There is a better way: If you’re out in the wild, don’t scoop your dog’s poop. Leave it out there in nature (ideally, after burying it in the ground).

To be clear, I am not completely against the existence of plastic dog poop bags, and their usage in many settings. It’s good that people have been conditioned to pick up after an animal’s droppings in urban areas, rather than just letting their ordure sit there to be easily stepped in. No thank you. If your pet is pooping on or near anything that’s paved, pick it up! That rule extends to busy urban green spaces like New York City’s Central Park. In places where there are tons and tons of people and plenty of trash cans, picking up and tossing dog poop is a necessary part of the social contract.

But in larger parks, preserves, and green spaces—where dogs often poop in the woods, off of the trail—what’s the sense of taking something that will biodegrade in weeks and wrapping it up in something that will take hundreds of years to break down? Yes, the ideal here is that people bag poop and then dispose of it in the trash. But let me tell you what happens in practice: When the nearest trash can is miles—or even a mile away—people do the first step, and forget the crucial second step of taking the bag with them until they find an appropriate place to dispose of it.

by Jeff Dingler, Slate |  Read more:

Image: Getty Images Plus
[ed. No shit. One of my pet peeves.]