Editor’s note: Today we begin a content partnership with Life Goggles, a site devoted to “Green reviews, news, and interviews.” Each week, we’ll publish one of LG’s product reviews on one of our network sites. As a dog owner, I was immediately drawn to this post, which was originally published on Wednesday, February 14, 2008.
California based Skooperbox apparently spent a couple of years trying to find a green way of dealing with dog mess.
Skooperboxes are small, pop-open boxes made from 100 percent recycled materials. Complete with lid and a scraper, each Skooperbox apparently makes it quick and tidy to clean up your dog’s mess. The boxes are available in two sizes (not sure if one is big enough for a horse though – if not they should think of that…), and are completely biodegradable in a “few days” (more realistically less than a month, but much much quicker than plastic bags!).
You can watch a video of it in action, fortunately the dog has already finished (unlike some other videos I found on YouTube whilst searching for this…):
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/gKRAwwrie9E" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Skooperbox’s founders explain: “We at Skooperbox are ordinary pet owners who were dissatisfied with the choices available to us to clean our pet waste. We also knew plenty of good people who did not pick up because of lack of a good product. Picking up the warm squishy mess is gross enough, but when the bag breaks or if you find a hole in the bag while you’re picking up, it can really ruin your walk.”
We’d be happy to hear your experiences of using it, or any other suggestions you have.
[Partly via: Springwise]
Image credit: Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
Bobby B.
Isn’t it sort of anti-Green to pick up and dispose of “organic” by-products? Do not the grass and flowers deserve a little natural fertilizer?
pjlioness
Well, true, it could be considered anti-green; however, it is the law in most/all areas of this country that we must pick up our dogs’ leavings in all areas outside our own yards. No one wants to have to watch out for those “land mines”, they can be health hazards, and we get along better with our neighbors when we clean up after our dogs.
Also, unless a dog is fed a raw diet, it takes quite a while for the poop to break down. The poop from a dog fed a raw diet will be gone within a week. If we use Skooperboxes (or another type of non-plastic biodegradeable pick-up bag, such as Bio-bag) and then put it a designated place in our own yard/garden, it isn’t so anti-green.
Sharon Troy
Bobby, perhaps if it’s in your backyard. But I don’t think the sidewalk outside my apartment needs any fertilizing.
Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
Funny you should mention that, Bob… One purchase I’m planning to make this Spring is a pet waste digester: kind of like a septic tank for pet waste, but breaks it down, and allows the nutrients to feed into the soil.
Bobby B.
Why not add human waste to the digester? Same stuff…different animal. Right?
Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
Oh, that’s done in some cases… human wastes are compostable. Toilets are a pretty inefficient way of dealing with them…
Bobby B.
Will your digester reclaim the off gases for use as combustible fuels? That’s been the claim of those trying to sell digesters to municipal sewerages and to factory farms. They say that they can scavenge the hydrocarbons to fuel machinery and equipment, and leave behind nothing but nutrient-rich fertilizer. Sounds good, right? However, should not someone question the idea’s long-term viability? Knowing that there are literally thousands of micro-organisms that break down such wastes (i.e. small critters that consume waste hydrocarbons for their fuel) and that such micro-organisms reside near the beginning of the food chain, what happens to the planet as a whole when we develop all these reclamation technologies and starve the species that all higher life depends upon for sustenance?
Chris Danner
According to our county water quality dept. uncollected pet waste contributes to e coli pollution in our lakes and rivers (I live in Michigan), so they recommend cleaning it up. I’ve considered getting one of those pet waste digesters, too, but don’t know if that could cause a water pollution problem, too – does anyone know? If it doesn’t, that seems like a much better solution than bagging it and putting it out with the trash.
kate
why isn’t anyone promoting the use of recycled paper bags? or a biodegradable plastic type bag? those are biodegradable, too. and these little boxes look like kind of a pain.