WHO KNEW? You Can Keep Lots of Parasites, Bacteria and Viruses out of the Groundwater by Cleaning up after your Dog?

Full disclosure: I’m a doggie mom. When our two adorable Pembroke Welsh Corgis were young, they would have a 3-mile walk around Occom Pond and into town each day. Now we break that into shorter walks just around the neighborhood. Still, there’s an inevitable byproduct of a dog walk that has to be dealt with: poop.

I think most people are conscientious about picking up after their pets. But, once in a while, you find a pile of poop that has just been left near a curb or on an open area of grass along the way. And I’ve been told there’s often a lot of dog waste on the local hiking trails.

The problem is that it can contain things like hookworm, tapeworm, and E. coli. In fact, the EPA puts dog waste in the same category of toxicity as pesticides and herbicides.

So if you have a dog, what do you do?

I’ve found two brands of doggy bags that are manufactured in an environmentally friendly way. One is made of plant-based plastic, and the other is made of recycled plastic. Both are available locally at the pet stores in West Lebanon.

Once you pick up after your dog, tie a knot to close the bag. When you get home you can just put it in your regular trash. It will end up in the landfill far from any pedestrians or animals that might spread the waste farther around the area, as would be the case if the poop were just left along the way.