If you've been a little sceptical about whether dog poo bags actually biodegrade as claimed... you have every right to be.
So, are dog poop bags actually biodegradable?
A dog poop bag is only biodegradable if it is certified Home Compostable and disposed of in a home compost bin.
The biodegradability of a poo bag is dependent on where it ends up after you dispose of it.
Simply because a poo bag is certified compostable or biodegradable does NOT mean it will successfully biodegrade.
Currently, there are no industrial composting facilities in the UK that accept dog waste and their poo bags.
In landfill, no poo bag will biodegrade properly – even food waste does not appropriately breakdown here, with methane gas being released instead.
In other environments, the required conditions are often not met for the poo bags to biodegrade successfully either. The correct oxygen levels, temperature, moisture and living microorganisms need to be present for aerobic biodegradation to occur.
For example, if you left a “certified compostable” poo bag on a tree branch – it will stay there for a long, long time. If you threw it into the ocean, it will hang around for long enough to pose the same risks as normal plastic (i.e. get eaten by a poor sea creature).
The only way a poo bag will biodegrade into organic matter is if it is:
- Certified home compostable
- Placed in a well-managed home compost bin.
But the reality is that over 95% of dog owners dispose of their dog poo bags in general waste, meaning they go to landfill or incineration.
This renders biodegradability irrelevant.
A more eco-friendly poo bag option is hence those made of recycled waste materials.
By knowing where our poo bags are headed after disposal, we can use existing waste that is already destined for the same waste streams. This way, no new waste is created, and we save on using scarce fresh resources.
ReSEAcled Dog Poop Bags are award-winning waste-based poo bags that have been developed using research and data. These are the only plastic-negative poo bag, meaning you remove more plastic from our environment than you contribute, simply by picking up your dog’s poo.
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