A Silly Question?

[Guest manawatugal]

I would be really interested to know what you all do with your dog poos/poops because I see that some of you have more than one. My dog poos about 3 times a day not always at home of course and then I am the responsible dog owner and collect in a bag. I was at first putting it all into a plastic lined small rubbish bin that I kept outside and emptied into main rubbish bin (sealed in a bag) but have since decided this is pretty gross. Well I suppose collecting poos is gross anyway....but I have since decided that the best and easiest thing to do is to collect once a day from the garden with my plastic spade and put down our nearest toilet which is by the back door, flush and then spray the toilet bowl with neat white vinegar (I'm a bit of a greenie) as the toilet does get used by humans occasionally. This seems to be working well but I have been wondering how you all go about it because obviously some of you must have mountains of the stuff to get rid of. I do have visions of stepping out into the garden in the dark and stepping into squishy poo at times - ewwww!

[OwnedBySummer]

I pick up poo every single time she goes into the backyard. I used to have a "poo eater" so I'm well-trained on collecting it right away. I then put it into a small garbage pail that I keep outside and it goes into the green bin once a week. Not sure if you have the green bin program in NZ but it's where you put all your "moist" waste, like vegetable trimmings. Our green bin program accepts poop. The stuff collected is then turned into compost and resold. This is not to be confused with our blue bin program, which is recyclables like plastic containers, metal cans and newspapers.

 

If we didn't have the green bin program here, then I would be putting it into the regular garbage.

 

Edit: I did it all the same way when I had two dogs instead of just one. If I had a washroom near the back door, I would certainly consider flushing it, however, I don't and I am not going to trot the poo through the house. Tried that long ago and it was downright nasty! Also, make sure you don't overload the toilet! -- having to plunge a dog poop clog is really unpleasant!

Edited March 23, 2011 by OwnedBySummer

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

I'm in the US. I just collect it daily into a bucket lined with a trash bag and put it with the trash at the curb for weekly pickup.

[Houndtime]

We have three dogs and always pick up poop immediately. It never sits.

 

We have a Rubbermaid plastic garbage can with lid in the bag yard. I keep a black groundskeeper garbage liner in the can and put a cup of cat litter in the bag. It does help a little to keep down the odor and moisture. If we walk the dogs I bring the poop bags home and deposit in the can. Our garbage pick up is twice a week, so I must say that the bag does get very heavy.

[Guest 2dogs4cats]

Good question. I have a service that comes and cleans the yard of poop and I really don't know what they do with it. I am guessing they throw it in the garbage. I have a park by my house and I see a lot of passers by drop poop bags in the park garbage can. I have to say the poop service is soooooo worth it.

[greysmom]

We contacted out municipality to see what they recommended, and they said to just collect it, double garbage bag it, and put it in the regular trash for pick-up. We did this for many years. Before greyhounds we had three great danes, and that was a LOT of poop! But it always bothered me - especially when there were articles or news about how much fecal waste goes into our landfills.

 

Unfortunately, dog poop can't be recycled the same as plant-based waste. It requires much higher composting temperatures to break down the waste into something that can be used. Home composting, and most commercial recycling, doesn't generate the required heat to handle this.

 

Recently, a company began locally that uses special heated composters to recycle dog and cat waste. We collect the poop into buckets lined with compostable bags and they come by and pick it up once a week, leaving clean buckets/bags. They then recycle it into compost. They will also pick up the yard for you, but it's considerably more expensive. We pay about $26 a month and I feel better about it than just throwing it into the landfill. Plus I've been able to downsize our regular trash bin size, so it comes out about even money in the wash.

[GeorgeofNE]

We have dumpsters here at the condo, so I put the bags in there, or in the trash cans at the park across the street.

[Remolacha]

I use a plastic grocery bag in a bucket to pick up the yard and scoop out the cat boxes every morning. I have alley trash pick-up, and it is a big bin that serves several households, so I just toss the bag (tied closed) in that. That is also where I put the bags-o-poop I collect on walks.

[Guest KennelMom]

one of those big paint white buckets from Lowes with a heavy duty garbage bag in it. And we give our garbage men a really nice Christmas bonus.

 

Actually, now that we're on raw there's really nothing to pick up.

[greytpups]

We have a special little bin with a charcoal filter that we store poop until garbage day so it doesn't smell. We can also put it in the green bin but then I'd have to empty it from the plastic bag that I use to pick it up.