It’s a fairly loaded question layered with lots of baggage, both literally with the protocol of bagging up dog defecation and metaphorically with moral sentiments.
A few years back, my local hometown weekly newspaper ran a “Spiritually Speaking” piece with a neighbor wondering how in a good community like ours, there could be people who didn’t pick up their dogs poop. It was a revealing wonder, in a way a microcosm of the problem of evil in the human heart. Especially considering the normally milquetoast advice on offer from the mainline protestant preachers, I remember the response being filled with fire and brimstone, offering guilt and shame for the non-poop picker uppers.
Looking around the web, that seems like a pretty standard set of recommendations. Here's what reddit has to say about how to properly shame the non-poop picker uppers into action. It’s also a recurring theme in our local newspaper since its a perennial issue. Dog poop takes years to properly degrade, and later on the publisher asked the community for ideas about the etiquette of disposing of poop bags. Many wrote in to complain about the smell of poop bags in their trash cans. The ultimate solution on offer was to only use one’s own personal trash can and follow the scouting philosophy of “packing it in, packing it out.”
These little small town moral quandaries play out on the world stage, as we make sense of the global village those of us who read and write internetworked enabled newsletters like this one live in. Sadly, people dump all manner of proverbial poop no on the side of the road but all across the thoroughfare of the information superhighway. Today entering into the digital public commons can mean wading through a toxic wasteland of social media sludge, filled with mob mentalities and all manner of mean spirited baggage.
Moving back to the town I grew up last year, I’ve been struck by how the internet amplifies the madness of the crowds. There was a whole saga on Nextdoor about a homeless person who was accused of arson and lurking behind peoples backyards. Digging beneath the hysterics, all that actually existed was a few pieces of wood stacked together. No photos of any homeless person existed, nor did any sightings. Likely it was some high schoolers messing around in the canyon that made the initial pile of wood and then a cascade of fear and paranoia transmogrified that into a community boogey man.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, in the wake of the devastating Eaton fire, I heard about a quietly heroic story of a young man who ran a small facebook group that shared localized weather forecasts based on the latest climate science. Here’s a quote from an NPR reporter interviewing him:
So I just want to explain to everyone why you are being called a hero right now. I mean, before the Eaton fire broke out last week, you were already warning people in your Facebook group to begin making early preparations to evacuate, like locating important documents, turning their cars to face out of the driveway.
Today the “Facebook group now is just full of stories from people who say that they are alive, that they made it out early enough because of [him] and the warnings that [he was] issuing to everyone.” My understanding is that when the fire department ordered the evacuation of Altadena, people were already streaming down the hill upon the advice of that young man. He was a trusted local source of information, and also regularly picked up trash on local trails. Not just his trash mind you, but a lion’s share.
In all the ample “adult” conversation about poop in the community newspaper not once did I hear a suggestion that maybe it’d be great for someone or some group to take it upon themselves to help pick up the extra poop littering across the community. Here I must confess that sometimes I do not pick up my dogs poop. Sometimes I forget a bag. Sometimes my hands are full with two dogs in a toddler. And rather than go into a space of guilt or shame, I try to pick up a few extra pieces of poop the next time I walk the dogs. Get some good poop karma.
And reflecting on the issue, I found myself asking: why is it that we pick up poop in the first place? It is natural in a sense, though perhaps not necessarily to this specific ecosystem and not in the way that dogs are highly domesticated animals nonnative to Southern California. It seems that dog poop can be a carrier for infectious bacteria like e coli, giardia and salmonella. The second bacterium in that list — giardia — is the key reason that it’s no longer safe to drink stream water in California mountains like the Sierra. A few decades ago backpackers did not need any purification system, the water was that pristine and clean to drink. Now that water can potentially kill you. Small actions can have long term ripple effects.
Yet picking up and throwing away poop ultimately does not entirely avoid negative consequences. Decomposing dog poop in a landfill releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Wrapping poop in plastic means that microplastics can leach into the water supply. Even biodegradable poop bags may not properly degrade in a landfill. Digging deeper there are other creative solutions on offer. Several cities have deployed dog specific composting and methane digesters, turning a source of waste into a community resource for growing plants or providing sustainable energy. Here are a couple of examples courtesy of ChatGPT:
1. Park Spark Project (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)
The Park Spark Project transformed dog waste into methane to power a park lantern. Dog owners deposited waste into a methane digester, producing biogas for lighting.
Learn More:
2. Ithaca Dog Waste Composting Initiative (Ithaca, New York, USA)
In Ithaca, a community project composted approximately 12 tons of dog waste over 18 months, diverting it from landfills and producing compost for non-food plants.
Learn More:
3. Malvern Hills Dog Waste-Powered Streetlamp (United Kingdom)
In Malvern Hills, a streetlamp was powered by methane produced from collected dog waste, showcasing an innovative approach to waste-to-energy conversion.
Learn More:
4. Netherlands Biogas-Powered Dog Waste Bins
Some Dutch municipalities have implemented biogas bins that collect dog waste and process it anaerobically to produce biogas for local use, integrating sustainable waste management into urban settings.
Learn More:
My dad pioneered large scale (cow) poop digesters in the Inland Empire, as part of an integrated approach to recycling wastewater and managing local resources. That provided cost effective solutions to develop green energy. Today there is a frontier for more modular community based approach to better manage poop, both human waste that goes down the toilet and the dog waste under discussion, that enables the foothill communities to live together in greater harmony with the world around us and each other. And there is a need for better stewardship of our digital commons, both locally and in the wonderful, magical information superhighway that enables us to communicate together from anywhere on this pale blue dot.
Locally my hometown water utility is planning for and evaluating the feasibility of building water recycling in the coming years. And there is ample opportunity for improvement on the poop situation, both of the dog waste variety and the internetworked sludge we too often see both locally and globally in our common spaces. If a dog waste composting or methane digester system were implemented in your area, would you use it? Why or why not? What do you think how we manage dog poop says about broader societal attitudes about responsibility and shared spaces? I'd be curious to your thoughts and ideas on how to move the ball forward in the comments.
Thanks for reading,
Patrick
