Better, Cleaner Picker Uppers
Once upon a time you could take your dog out for a walk around the block or a run through the park without having to worry about picking up his feces after he’s done his business. For most of us though, those days are long gone. Now most municipalities in the United States require that dog owners pick up after their pets. If you’ve grown tired of saving plastic grocery bags for the daily pick-up you might be ready to invest in bags designed especially for poop collection. Here’s a sampling:
Want a bag that feels as smooth against your skin as silk boxers? Want to line your bed with bags and sleep on them instead of sheets? You’ll definitely want to experience the silky sensation of BioBags. BioBag, made in Norway, claim to be “the first 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable ‘plastic’ pooper bag in the world,” and say that their bags decompose in 40 days in a “regulated composting environment.” Of course conditions in county landfills do not replicate those within composting. I do give BioBags props for the lengthy website presentation of how their claims of biodegradation are evaluated. The 7.5”x11.5” bags (which cost 8.5 cents each) have a hole in the top for easy hanging and a six-step instructional diagram printed on each bag describing (in seven languages) how to utilize the center hole to securely tie up a full bag.
Looking for something in a doggy bag that will make your girlfriend mushy? One look at the green packaging, kiddie-drawn dog illustration and loopy fonts of the Oops…I Pooped baggies will cause her to coo, “Oh, isn’t that cute?” Only problem is that once you open the outer package, you’ll find that the actual product is a rather uninspiring paper-thin, difficult to pull open, nearly translucent black plastic bag. So, to get the appropriate reaction from your woman friends you’ll need to carry the product packaging with you on every dog walk. Besides its cute name, Oops I Pooped boasts shopping bag style handles for easy carrying and tying off. Oops is biodegradable but designed to not degrade until it comes into contact with microorganisms in the soil. The upside is that it has a long shelf life—the downside is that it can take 5 years for these bags to degrade in a landfill. Distributed by Planet Friendly Plastics, Inc. Oops…I Pooped run 9 cents per bag.
If you need a poop bag that can moonlight as a portable water bowl, Mutt Mitt is the one for you. The Mutt Mitt is a 9”x13” bag of thick white plastic with a second, cup-like black layer in the pick up zone. The extra sturdy, 2-ply design gives the external cup enough structure to hold a couple of inches of water. Like many other brands, Mutt Mitt claims to be 100% degradable. Having once left a couple of these bags in the glove compartment of my car for a month, I can attest to their ability to deteriorate. When I pulled out the bags, plastic snow drifted down and clung to my pants and the car’s floor pad. Still, these are my personal favorite because the extra layers keep me confortably removed from the chore. Made by Intelligent Products, Inc the 7 cent per bag mitts are available at retailers.
If you want to guarantee you always have a bag with you, no matter where Fido does his business, you’ll want to invest in the Bags On Board system which attaches directly to your dog’s leash. The blue, 100% biodegradable plastic bags come in small rolls that are easily snapped in place in the dispenser. If you need something more fashionable than the original white with blue lid, the 3.5”x2” canister style dispenser also comes in leopard or shaped like a fire hydrant. Recently redesigned to be longer, at 9.75”x 15” these bags are sized to handle the largest dump, but the thin plastic can be difficult to separate and occasionally splits at the seam, leaving you scrambling to hold the bag together as you dash for the nearest trash bin. Bags On Board run about 8 cents per bag and are available through retailers like PetSmart (www.petsmart.com).
Think you’d prefer a bag dispenser that stays home? Try DogiPot, 8”x13” brown biodegradable bags that come in rolls of 200, packed in a handy dispenser for household use. If you are willing to order 6,000 bags at a time, you can get these suckers for as little as 3 cents a bag.
Looking for something cheap? Or maybe you want a bag you can count on for longevity? Made of high density black plastic DogPoopBags bags don’t make any claims of degradability, so you can trust them to protect your dogs poop for years to come. You could even pass it on as a family heirloom. The 7”x9.3” DogPoop bags with “Tie ‘n’ Toss handles” are one of the lowest priced bags available, costing only a few pennies a bag. In fact, the company guarantees that they have the lowest bag prices available “for similar bags.”
Or maybe you want “pleasantly fragranced” pink baggies to hold your poodle’s dookie in some high traffic area, like your girlfriend’s fru fru bathroom. If what you need in a poop bag is a lovely potpourri scent, then invest the 11 cents a bag to buy Pooch Pick Up Bags. These pink, fragranced 6”x14.5” bags have tie handles and are available at petstores. They are not biodegradable—but who’d want that lovely smelling bag of crap (around 14 cents each) to degrade?
