“When Laura Young got Cooper the cavapoo in 2020, she knew that single-use plastic poo bags weren’t going to cut it. “Having a dog is a lifestyle extra,” says the 28-year-old environmental scientist. “I was aware that I wanted to try not having a negative environmental impact.” But where to start? The shelves seemed to be divided into two camps: bog-standard, single-use plastic wisps, and shiny, expensive bags brandishing eco buzzwords. “I was conscious that compostable bags weren’t the solution,” says Young. “But initially that’s all I could find and so that’s what I bought.”
“Often marketed as biodegradable, compostable or made from an alternative material such as cornstarch, they promise a more environmentally friendly option than single-use plastic. (Plastic poo bags, frequently made from low-density polyethylene, will sweat in landfill for thousands of years, breaking down into harmful microplastics and releasing climate-warming methane as they go.)
““You’ve got plastic bags, you’ve got recycled plastic bags, you’ve got compostable bags, you’ve got biodegradable bags,” says Young. “There are actually so many materials now that it’s confusing.” She’s not alone in puzzling over which to buy, with the nation’s dogs producing more than 1,000 tonnes of poo every day in the UK.”
Read the full article here: The Guardian
