ailsas mum Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Wendy, where do you get biodegradable nappy sacks from please I bought mine in scotmid, I can't remember how much they were but they were a lot cheaper than the dog ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 (edited) Whoopsie, double post! Edited October 5, 2009 by cycas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 (edited) It is darn complicated Victoria. Don't worry I wasn't going to flush anything that wasn't sold as suitable for flushing. The biodegradable bags I already have are 100% compostable and biodegradable, I spent ages looking online before I bought them to make sure they were the "proper" thing. So, apologies if I sound ignorant here, but if you use the proper biodegradable ones, do you have to dig a hole and bury them to dispose of them correctly (other than tossing them into a bin which I realised after buying them kinda defeats the point!)? What about risks of putting the poo back into the soil? My dogs are wormed regularly but then they will eat the poo of cats that come and cr@p in our garden/on our track etc. and other wild animal delicacies in the fields, so who knows what is going back into them then. My view on that is that stuff that dogs get by picking up from poo of other creatures *that's already there* they probably aren't going to put back any more nasties than are there already. Less, if anything, as they are wormed. One problem with putting poo straight back into the soil is that it's very concentrated/rich - in many ecosystems, plants depend on relatively poor soil to protect them from being overrun by brambles and coarse grasses. Thus the 'no sand hills' bit. But bacterial contamination? I dunno - these are animals that lick their bottoms. And their bodies. And then they give us a kiss, or we give their dirty-saliva-covered bodies a hug and then grab a sandwich. As I'm not particularly careful about always washing hands after touching my dogs, I'm probably on the blase side of the risk equation when it comes to soil. The idea of composting is a good one in principle BUT I'm not sure exactly what I'd need to do/how much space I'd need and also I have HUGE issues with those W things that live in the ground that you need for composting which has stopped me doing anything like this so far. I would be happy to bring all poo back home if I could find a safe (and non scary!) way of disposing it. Especially now I have my dicky bag What about finding a place at the bottom of a hedge on a country track to put your biodegradable bag? Somewhere where no person is ever going to tread. Should one be shot for that? I do that on occasion, so if it's wrong, shoot me! I do try remember though that those whopping great mechanical hedge trimmers whack a hedge back a long way quite violently, and it would be rather nasty if the bag was close enough to the edge to get caught up. But if nobody can see it, smell it, or touch it, and nobody is going to tread in it, is it so bad...? Edited October 5, 2009 by cycas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReikiAnge Posted October 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Thanks Victoria, that's helpful. I think I have a similar view on this to you. But if nobody can see it, smell it, or touch it, and nobody is going to tread in it, is it so bad...? I don't think so - and I've done it too with my biodegradable bags so I'll join the shooting line. I don't think people *need* to pick up in a lot of the area we walk in and the paths that are worn across the fields are littered with dog poo that is just left there, which drives me round the bend as that *is* likely to be trodden in by humans/dogs. So really, carefully bagging it in a biodegradable bag and putting it safely out of the way to decompose seems a pretty reasonable alternative. Not that I would just leave poo for someone to tread in, the other alternative is to bag it normally and then bin it. Not sure why I worry so much when I spend our walks side-stepping horse poo, tons of other dog poo and trying to stop my dogs eating cat and fox poo Rabbit and deer poo I can tolerate more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zico's mum Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Some councils and Forestry Commission have signs asking to "stick and flick" ie don't use bags but flick dog poo out of the way - as a counter I suppose to all those hideous bags hanging from trees and bushes.I never poo pick on the moors,just usually kick it off the path if that's where they've performed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 I got a response: the poo bin contents here in Cornwall are landfilled as a 'deep load' - ie, they put it at the bottom of whatever else they get that day. The council say that the poo then biodegrades at the bottom of the landfill, and SITA who operate the landfill appear to agree: http://www.sita.co.uk/about-us/what-we-do/landfill/how-does-landfill-work - it produces methane, which can then be burned to generate energy. The loads are processed and compacted before they are filled, which I'd have thought would probably burst the outer binbag. My tentative conclusion from this is that it is probably better to use a biodegradeable poo bag than a straight plastic one, even if you are going to put it in a poo bin, if you are buying new bags for the job, because that reduces the amount of non-degradable stuff going into the landfill. If you re-use a plastic bag (that you can't get away with not having in any other way), that would otherwise go straight into landfill that's probably even better if you are putting it in a poo bin. I'm now going to ask SITA if they have ever trialled providing separate composting bins for poo in biodegradable bags. If you don't ask... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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