Monday, May 5, 2008

Scoopies

Scoopies may have the best tag line ever:

for environmentally responsible pet owners who love to pick up poo!

Nothing like telling like it is!
Scoopies are poop bags with an edge. Usually, pet owners will simply reuse plastic grocery bags for Fido's unmentionables - but while this gets a +1 for reusing the bag, the non-biodegradeable plastic bag is still taken and ends up in the landfill. While the best answer would be to let it simply compost, every city dweller knows this isn't a feasible - or legal - answer. Scoopies bags are big, durable, and made from Oxo-biodegradable plastics, which claim to degrade completely within two years without leaching toxins in to the soil. (I am not able to find anything that completely verifies or completely refutes this claim, so for now we'll take it at face value). Scoopies come 30 to a box, are nice and long so that you can pull them over your hand, they are shaped with an opposable thumb to make it easier to pick up the poo, and are tough enough to handle the worst your dog can produce.

Scoopies are available at Bark and Fitz and other retailers across Canada. Bonus: These make awesome gifts for pet owners!

6 comments:

PURE Blog said...

Yeah...I love Scoopies!

Anonymous said...

So what do you do with them? Put them in a plastic garbage bag where they won't decompose, or put them in your composter? I thought poo was a no-no in the composter...? Help!

Katie said...

I would love to get my hands on these. Must pick some up! But Julie brings up some good questions. Unless you use biodegradable large garbage bags, how will they be exposed enough to decompose?

Anonymous said...

Awesome question!

First - I believe that the degradation process begins the second you expose the product to air. So even if they're inside another bag, they will still degrade, albeit probably more slowly. (Don't quote me on that, I'm not a scientist, heh).

Second - when I use them, I don't put them inside another bag. They either go in the public waste receptacles which are emptied straight into the garbage truck sans outside bag, or they go straight into our own bin without being put into a bigger bag.

Is it a perfect solution? Nope. But if you're a city dweller, you have no choice but to pick up your dog's poo, so these at least give the environment a fighting chance.

It also helps in our case that we feed a brand of dog food that seems to decompose entirely - our back yard was empty of poo after this past winter, and he'd been pooping out there for months. So when these bags go to the garbage I feel better that both components will hopefully degrade fully.

Hope this helps!

Katie said...

Awesome, thanks for the info! What brand of food do you feed your dog? I love the idea of feeding our pugs something that's more biodegradable.

Anonymous said...

@gabbergirl - we use Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Duck and Potato - http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

It really freaked me out that there was no poo left in the back yard this spring. I think it was a combination of the ridiculous amount of snow and the fact that this food degrades well. Either way I was pleased!