Dilemma of an Earth Loving Dog Owner

Deceptive Marketing

How does an environmentalist/dog owner handle the poop bag dilemma? The average dog owner throws away over 1000 dog poop bags each year. Unfortunately this means they will be contributing to the significant amount of plastic already in our landfills and oceans. This is why earth loving dog owners buy poop bags with the words “compostable,” “degradable” or “biodegradable” on the label. Unfortunately though, these claims are misleading.  Did you know that most poop bags labeled biodegradable or degradable require UV (sunlight) and oxygen to break down? Sunlight and oxygen, however, are not present in a landfill environment.

Likewise, “compostable” poop bags do not compost in a landfill. Landfill environments do not have the heat, nitrogen, water and oxygen needed to compost. And composting pet waste bags at home is generally unsafe. In actuality, a commercial composting facility is generally required to safely break down “compostable” plastic bags. And most of these facilities do not accept poop!

Green Guides

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) created “Green Guides” in 1992 to protect consumers against unqualified general environmental benefit claims. For example, claims that a pet waste bag is “green” or “eco-friendly” is prohibited. In 2015, the FTC sent 20 dog waste bag manufacturers a warning letter. The letter warned that their products’ environmental claims could be deceptive. In fact, in 2018, Amazon paid a 1.5 million dollar settlement for advertising biodegradable and compostable poop bags without the science to back it up. 

Marketers may make an unqualified degradable claim only if they can prove that the “entire product or package will completely break down and return to nature within a reasonably short period of time after customary disposal. The “reasonably short period of time” for complete decomposition of solid waste products? One year. Items destined for landfills, incinerators, or recycling facilities will not degrade within a year, so unqualified biodegradable claims for them shouldn’t be made. In other words, there is a whole lot of “biodegradable” plastic products that are not going to biodegrade for a very long time, if ever.

Plastic Bags

My dilemma of an earth loving dog owner has always been the dog poop bags. Not only do plastic bags stay in our landfills, they fill up our oceans. I can’t help but think of the young whale who died of starvation and lack of hydration because he had 88 lbs of plastic in his stomach! I think everyone can agree that there needs to be a solution. There are a few alternatives to plastic poop bags. Unfortunately though, none of the options are viable if you live in a city. You must pick up your dog’s poop. The poop bags are taken to landfills. As previously discussed, most biodegradable poop bags don’t degrade, and compostable bags don’t “compost” in a landfill environment.

Greenline Pet Supply

When I opened Ethical Essentials L.A. (EELA) and went on a search to find the most ethical products on the market. My research for ethical pet products led me to Greenline Pet Supplies. The Greenline dog poop bag has a proprietary natural additive that renders the bags biodegradable in modern landfills. The bag attracts microbes and bacteria already present, and subsequently, these microbes colonize on the surface of the plastic bag thereby completely digesting it. An independent lab authenticated their claims (test method ASTM D5511-12.).

The Greenline dog poop bag biodegrades within 26-28 months. This isn’t “less than a year” but considering other biodegradable dog poop bags take 500 hundreds years, I’m going to consider it a win. Purchase landfill-biodegradable bags at Ethical Essentials L.A. and help your pup reduce their carbon footprint.