
If you don’t have any other option, try to use the smallest bag available and pick a bag that you would throw into the trash anyway. To complicate matters further, certain landfills won’t accept pet waste because of the possibility of spreading diseases. It will go to a landfill and take upward of 500 years to disintegrate.Įven if you send a biodegradable bag to the landfill, it can’t properly decompose because it is buried underneath the soil, and biodegradable bags need oxygen and light to break down effectively. This may be standard, but it isn’t always the best choice for the environment. This is presumably what most people do with dog waste - they place it in a trash bag and throw it away. The Top 5 Ways to Dispose of Dog Poop at Home 1. Let’s take a look at the five best ways to dispose of dog poop at home.
#Have you ever thrown dog waste in the trash without a bag how to#
Did you know there are many options when it comes to how to dispose of dog poop? Each one has its benefits and downsides, with some being environmentally friendly too. There are currently some 800 litter bins in the neighborhood - for residents and their dogs alike.Īnd don’t forget, there are still plenty of public doggy bidets in NYC.Īlejandra Salazar is an assistant producer in the newsroom at WNYC.Picking up dog poop is not a fun chore, but it must be done. “I think we need more places to put litter,” he said, “including dog poop.”

If you live in a very residential area, you may not have a litter basket on your corner.”īut Feinstein says that's exactly the problem: there just aren't enough trash cans. “Litter baskets are placed in commercial areas. The department’s website states that, along with flushing it or throwing it out at home, “the feces may also be placed in a non-leaking sealed bag or container and deposited in a DSNY litter basket.”īelinda Mager, a spokeswoman for the Department of Sanitation, says taking the poop bags back home is just a suggestion-an alternative for folks who might not have another option available.

To be clear, the Sanitation Department does allow dog owners to throw away pet poop in public trash cans, so long as it's in a closed bag. “I think you throw it away where you pick it up, in the nearest New York City public litter receptacle,” he said. He says this is what trash cans are there for. Will not bring dog poop home,” Upper Westsider Doug Feinstein declared.įeinstein lives near Riverside Park and is a dog walker with a pup of his own. Is that what you're saying?” she said when asked about the city’s proposed alternative. “You mean taking the poop back in a bag and emptying it into the toilet. To most dog owners, this notion comes as a surprise.Įlaine Evans has lived on the Upper West Side for more than 30 years and walks her shih-tzu-poodle mix - a 13-year-old pup named Alfie - nearly every day in Riverside Park. Yes, according to this unnamed official, the city would like New Yorkers to comply with state law and transport their dog’s excrement home in a bag, and then flush the contents of the bag down their toilets. New York State Public Health Law requires that each person who owns or controls a dog must remove any feces left by that dog on any sidewalk, gutter, or other public area and dispose of it in a legal manner ultimately, by carrying it away for disposal in a toilet, or placed out with their own trash.” Dog walkers should not be placing their canine waste on, or in other residents’ receptacles placed out for DSNY collection services. “Litter baskets are intended for pedestrian litter - while canine waste may be placed in litter baskets, that is not their primary purpose. But the letter also contained a surprising lecture on the obscure rules governing sidewalk trash cans:

West Side Rag reports that after one local complained about the removal of neighborhood trash cans, and the overflowing garbage that ensued at the remaining trash cans, a deputy director at the Department of Sanitation sent her a letter noting that two litter baskets had been added to the trashy area in question.

Upper West Side residents thought they knew: simply bag it up and throw it away in the nearest trash can, typically one owned and operated by the city.īut some folks are getting conflicting information on how to clean up after their canines. Here's a question: once you actually get dog owners to pick up after their dogs-a historically uphill battle in New York City-what do you do with that bag of poo?
