Reducing Your Carbon Footprint As A Dog Owner
Photo by Mauri Karlin on Unsplash
With it just being Earth Day, I encourage you to think about the impact you and your pet have on the environment. Are you doing everything that you can for future generations? It is not easy and diligent customers have to pay more to ensure that they are looking out for the environment. As with any trendsetter, it costs more to be an educated and aware customer.
Here are some ticks and tricks to reduce your carbon footprint as a dog owner:
Your dog’s business, let’s talk poop bags:
Plastic is a large issue for Climate Change, here are some stats that you need to sit with:
There are approximately 90 million dogs in the US
70% of pet owners live in suburban and urban areas according to this Pet Ownership report here
If you take your dog out 3X a day you are contributing over 13,000 feet of plastic material in one year alone.
This means that for all of the dogs of the US living in urban and suburban contribute approximately 819 billion feet of plastic (if each bag is nearly one foot in length)
Make Swaps from Plastic Bags to Biodegradable Poop Bags, Compostable Poop Bags and Recycled Plastic Poop Bags.
Photo courtesy of Wild One Pet Products.
3. Seek out Dog Bed alternatives to reduce landfill. My favorite brand that I’ve been using for over 6 years is the Molly Mutt Dog Bed Duvet. The problem that I kept having with some dog beds is that they are not easy to wash and you can fill them with old padding from dog beds or fill it with your own clothing.
This allows your pup to feel safer with your familiar scent while reducing landfill and allowing you to maintain the duvet similar to how you do sheets. I think it keeps it much cleaner for the pup!!
Buy Sustainable and Recycled Toys
4. Buy sustainably made toys and toys that are recycling and reducing their carbon footprint in the production. One of the best examples of this is West Paw based in Bozeman, Montana. They design all of their toys, sew their beds, and operate to keep waste out of landfills, chemicals out of soil, and water. These premium products deliver stellar quality coupled with sustainable attitudes and practices that make them a Woof Republic favorite.
Photo Courtesy of Molly Mutt - photo is the dreams Dog Bed Duvet.
Photo courtesy of West Paw.
There is no right way to reduce your carbon footprint and you have to make it your own!! I encourage all dog owners to consider small steps that educe their carbon footprint and your contribution to landfills.