If it looks like plastic and it feels like plastic - it is plastic! Which material is most eco-friendly for poop bags?

Poop bags – they all contain plastic. That's the unfortunate truth. So which ones are best, or worst, for the environment? What materials should we be looking to buy and which should we be avoiding? With a range of different materials available we look at the advantages of degradable / biodegradable / compostable and recycled versions and how 'eco-friendly' they are.

The most sustainable and eco-friendly thing we can do is reuse, i.e. recycle. This stops single use and it is single use we need to prevent. 

Most of the bags - regardless of the material - are put into landfill. These conditions do not aid decomposition and therefore your biodegradable or compostable bags are not doing what they say they are. More over - methane is given off and this is a greenhouse gas.

Therefore the best solution is to use recycled products where possible, like our poop bags!

This great podcast from Sliced Bread deals with everything mentioned above. Give it a listen!​

Sliced Bread - Dog Poo Bags

Recycled Plastic

Arguably the best option. This option reduces the 'single use' plastic and it is 'single use' plastics that are the bane of the environment.

Using recycled plastic also rewards the recycling system and manufacturers who produce it - at extra cost to virgin plastic. 

Compostable

Home composting, is not your leaf pile at the end of the garden but a unit that requires optimal conditions, bacteria levels, PH, humidity, etc.

Cornstarch bags use PBat, a plastic, and there is an environmental cost to growing corn and the fossil fuels used to harvest and turn it into cornstarch.

According to the Environment Services Association, currently NO industrial locations that take compostable poop bags for composting.

Degradable

Everything is degradable. The question here is how long this process take. Essentially this is a bit of marketing BS, it means nothing and is more than likely to be made of virgin plastic. In our opinion, not really worth buying.

Bio-degradable

The Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries Association says that it thinks the word biodegradable shouldn’t be allow on packaging and should be banned as it is misleading.

Again, the problem here is how the product breaks down and how long that takes. You need specific bacteria, PH levels, humidity all to create optimal conditions for products to biodegrade in short periods of time.