Scooping up poop might be one of the worst parts of walking the dog. The only thing slightly more annoying? Using a brand-new plastic bag — one that you know will linger in landfills for centuries — just to hold poop.
Maybe this frustration has piqued your interest in “compostable” or “biodegradable” dog waste bags. But odds are, whatever you think will happen with eco-friendly poop bags isn’t panning out. “Biodegradability is the most used and abused term,” says Ramani Narayan, a chemical engineer at Michigan State University. The word carries little regulatory oversight, and when slapped on products, it can leave customers thinking their purchase — whether it be plastic cups, forks or dog poop bags — leaves a smaller impact on the environment than it does.
