if you've got a dog and you pay any attention to the impact plastic has on
the world's ecosystem then there's a good chance you've wondered how to
dispose of dog poop in the most green and eco-friendly way possible well in
this video I go through the size of the problem the seven main dog poop disposal
methods out there what they involve in just how green each is so stay tuned hi
I'm dr. Alex the veterinarian behind ourpetshealth.com where my aim is to help
you and your dog to live a healthier happier life so make sure you subscribe
if that's something you're interested in let's jump into the nature of the
problem first and it's a big one they're estimated to be about 83 million pet
dogs in the US 8.9 million in the UK and 4.8 million dogs in Australia the
average dog produces about 274 pounds or 124 kilograms of waste a year and that's
a lot of poop to dispose of working out a massive 12 million tons of dog poop
produced every year in these front three countries alone to make matters worse if
we assume that every dog goes once a day and one plastic bag is used to dispose
of the waste then two thousand nine hundred million plastic bags are used
every month just to dispose of dog waste so what's the most green way to dispose
of dog poop one that would make even the most hardline eco warrior proud of you
well there are seven main ways to dispose of dog poop well eight if you
can't just leaving it wherever your dog decides to go which is clearly not
something I recommend because of the risk to your health and your dog as well
and I've discussed this in another video that I'll just link up here and I'm
going to start with the most obvious way to dispose of your dog poop and work my
way up to the most green way to clean up after your dog or at least in my opinion
and at number one we have disposing of your dog waste in the regular trash
where it will then get taken and disposed of as landfill so there are two
problems with disposing of your dog's waste in the landfill and the first one
is that the plastic bag that you use to collect your dog's waste and throw its
away in just won't break down even those that are marketed as biodegradable or if
they're non petroleum-based they just won't break down in a landfill site so
on at least not in a good way so if you've
got a corn-based a biological one then as well as with the dog waste it will
actually produce methane and methane it's a really potent greenhouse gas and
actually one ton of dog poop will actually produce 450 kilograms of
methane so that's potentially a huge amount that will then be going into the
atmosphere and perpetuating climate change so that's definitely something to
consider and for those that plastic bags that are sitting there will they'll
break down into tiny little pieces that will potentially then get washed away
certainly for you know in many years to come when the landfill may kind of start
to leak or something like that so that's definitely something to consider of
course it's better than just leaving the dog waste where it is and the human kind
of health risk that that can potentially involve being washed into waterways like
I say I've already discussed and there are a couple of things as well that we
can do to try and make it as green as possible if that is the only option
that's available to you and the first of those is to use a smaller bag so that
will just put less waste into the landfill and the other one is to
actually just recycle any plastic bags that you are gonna throw away anyway so
that might be the plastic bag in from inside a cereal box it might be the bag
that your bread comes in just use that to pick up your dogs waste and throw
that in the rubbish for landfill instead okay so the second way to dispose of
your dog poop is to actually flush it down the toilet and there's a couple of
ways that we can go about that the first one is simply to empty the bag and flush
your dog's waste down the toilet you clearly can't flush plastic it'll just
block and it won't actually flush in the first place
if that doesn't appeal to you then you can actually buy flushable dog waste
bags dog poop bags and I'll leave a link down below in the description for those
and they're things that can be flushed down they won't clog the system and
they'll break down and allow your dog's race to be processed in just the way
that normal human waste is a couple of things if you're using those bags you
don't want to tire not in the top because that will try air in the bag
which means you won't be able to flush it and you also do want to check with
your local council that their facilities are able to process the bag and the dog
ways because in some parts of the world that might not be appropriate and it
might not be allowed the other thing to consider is that if you've got very old
plumbing then that might make a blockage a little bit more
likely so you just want to take careful if you're living in an older house with
with old plumbing you might get a nasty blockage okay so the third way to
dispose of your dog's waste is to install a doggy septic tank into your
garden so what this involves is digging a deep hole in the ground you pop the
the system on top the lid is kind of flush with the grass or flush with
ground level and what you then do is you open that up you add your dog's waste to
it every time you add dog waste to it you flush it with a little bit of water
and every week or so you actually add maybe an enzyme tablet or a little
liquid or powder and that will help break down your dog's waste while it's
in that system that will then get kind of absorbed and washed away through the
soil eliminating the problem that will eliminate contamination it won't result
in contamination of the local area you know and can be a great way there are a
couple of things though to think about one is the type of soil that you have so
if you've got a really heavily clay based soil then the water will sit there
it won't drain away and you'll be left with a disgusting mess so it's
definitely not appropriate if you've got a heavy clay basically soil and if
things are getting too cold as well you won't be able to use it because again
ground will freeze it won't be able to soak away and also below a certain
temperature that enzymes that you're adding to help break everything down
won't work properly so it might be the depending on where you are in some in
kind of spring summer autumn you might be able to use it but in winter you'll
have to think of another way to dispose of your dogs way so those are two things
to consider if you're thinking about installing a doggy septic tank and again
I'll leave a link in the description down below to some of those systems if
you're interested strategy number four to dispose of your dog's poop is
actually very simple and that's simply to bury it so if you're thinking of this
you obviously need enough space so that you've got lots of different places that
you can bury your dogs waste especially if you've got a big dog you're obviously
going to need a lot of space and it's also important that you bury it six to
twelve inches deep to make sure it's deep enough not to be disturbed and
where it will be broken down without causing any problems there so if you've
got enough space that's definitely something to think about
so can you compost dog poop is a question that's often asked and the
answer is yes and know so if you've just got a kind of
a little compost heap that you don't really pay much attention to then you're
not really going to be able to compost your dog's waste if you have a proper
system and it gets up to a good temperature then it's definitely
something that you can do and that is safe to do so
compost needs to get up to 165 degrees for a total of five days to destroy all
of the bugs and potential nasties within dog on your dog's waste or it needs to
get up to 130 degrees if you turn it five times every three day so there is a
little bit involved with composting properly to make sure that it will break
down your dog's waste and leave a safe compost that can then be used without
any risk of contamination and I'll leave a link in the description down below to
a couple of disp a couple of methods that could be used in a couple of
systems that you could make yourself so if that's something that you're
interested in make sure you check that out the other thing to consider is that
the compost that gets produced really shouldn't be used on anything edible so
don't use it in your veggie patch don't use it around any fruit save it for your
shrubs and for your could have ornamental beds and that kind of thing
that way even if things haven't got to temperature and there is a small chance
that there could be bugs then it's not going to you know get into the food
chain and it's not going to make you sick but composting your dog's waste is
definitely something that can be done so my sick method for disposing of dog poop
is very similar and that's to use a were Marie so what happens here is you add
the dog waste on the top to the top of the wer Marie the worms will then kind
of eat it break it all down and produce a really rich compost and that also
produces kind of like a kind of a little composting juice if you like as well
that's really concentrated so it takes a little bit to set it up there's a little
bit of a cost to set it up but once it's up and running you know it can
definitely be something that's useful and produces again a useful usable
product which surely has to be one of the most green ways out there as well
again the same applies don't use it on your veggies or your fruit save it for
your ornamentals and your shrubs and then the final way to dispose of your
dog poop is maybe one to watch out for in the future and that is using
to produce biogas so I already said that in a landfill situation your dog's waste
produces a lot of methane and that methane rather than letting it go into
the environment and into the atmosphere you can actually collect that and then
use that as a useable energy source now you might think that's far-fetched and
you know a little bit of dog poops not going to make a huge difference but I'll
leave some links down below there are some studies that show that it's
definitely a useful product and for its size it actually produces quite a lot of
methane competitor other things like cow and cow manure and there have actually
been schemes that have been proposed I don't think they had ever got up and
running but there was a scheme in Melbourne Australia to suggest that they
could use the dog waste that they collected to power all of the street
lights and I know in the UK there have been some schemes that have have been
suggested as well so while they may not be running now although they might I'm
not entirely sure definitely want to look out for the future and it may be
the very best thing that we can do to get rid of our dog's waste okay so I
hope that was a little bit interesting for you and I hope that you know it
maybe gives you food for thought about what you can do with your dog's waste
rather than just kind of tossing it in the rubbish and not giving it a second
thought I'd love to hear your thoughts down in the comments below what do you
think of the of the options is there anything that you think you're going to
try or have you tried any of these and you found it wasn't for you or you found
that it was you know really helpful and very easy to put that into your daily
routine I'd love to hear from you remember they're also the links to those
products down below now full disclosure they are affiliate links so if you click
on any of those then I will make a small commission that will help support the
channel but it will be at no cost to you so make sure you check those out and
until next time i'm dr. alex from our pets health because their family