Compost your Dog Poop

The best thing you can do with dog poop is to bury it in your own garden and put it to work

Picking up our dog's poop is important for maintaining safe and pleasant surroundings for the community you live in. Canine fecal matter is unsanitary and besides, nobody likes stepping in a steaming pile of you-know-what. 

Dog feces and the environment

It's no surprise that dog poop is filled with bacteria and other nasties. Just a gram of the stuff can contain 23 million fecal coliform bacteria, as well as various parasites, and potentially worms and diseases such as salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis and cryptosporidiosis. Problematically, dog poop also contains undigested nutrients, which, when introduced into the water system and contribute to cause excessive growth of algae and weeds. 

Even if you do pick up your dog's poop and dispose of it in the nearest bin, you are joining a queue of thousands upon thousands of tonnes of dog feces – plus plastic bags, going into landfill every day. (If you must put poop in the bin, be sure to use compostable dog poop bags.)

Down the loo?

If you want to stop your dog's number twos ending up in landfill, the most simple way to do so is to bring them home and flush them down the toilet. This way, they'll be treated along with all the human waste that goes down into the sewers.

Compost your dog poop

There are a few really easy ways to compost your dog poop. If you pick up poops from your back yard, you will have noticed that most small medium dog poops are pretty much decomposed or well on their way in a couple of days, especially in summer. Options, if you have a back yard is to simply bury them. If you have a compost bin, it's perfectly fine to toss them in. Just make sure you turn the compost as that subjects the poop to heat.

You can also purchase a specific pet poop composter - something that is likely to be handy if you are living in an apartment. You can then use the compost on your indoor or outdoor plants. If you don't have plants, consider getting some as they are great for your home air or simply give away your compost. 

To learn how to make your own pet waste compost see: Make a Pet Waste Compost.




Image: Arturasker/Shutterstock

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