Green Your Dog!

Going green benefits your dog’s health as well as the planet.

You recycle. You eat organic. You put on a sweater before you crank up the heat. But have you ever considered your dog’s effect on the environment? And have you thought about what the environment’s doing to your dog?

The surprising answer: quite a lot. A recent study from eco-watchdogs Environmental Working Group found that cats and dogs are carrying around a cocktail of forty-eight different industrial chemicals in their bodies—many of them at much higher levels than what’s found in people. Some of those chemicals have been linked to thyroid problems, birth defects, and cancer, among other conditions.

Chief among the chemicals accumulating in dogs: flame retardants from beds, furniture, and polluted food; stain and grease-proofing chemicals from carpets, dog beds, and dog food packaging; and plastic softeners known as phthalates, which are found in products ranging from shampoos to toys to medicines.

Then there’s the toll our pooches take on the planet. The ten million pounds of poop they churn out every year in the U.S. alone, for starters, and the chemical fallout of our war against fleas and ticks.

Ready for the good news yet? Here it is: you can shrink your pup’s environmental pawprint dramatically without overhauling your life, and your dog may reap some health benefits.

How to green your dog:

1. Choose eco-friendly dog supplies.
There’s oodles to choose from, and our green product reviews can help you separate what’s worth buying and what’s not. What to look for: material that will biodegrade, has been or can be recycled, wasn’t treated with flame retardants, and is free of plastics. When your dog’s sick of his toys, swap with your dog-parent friends rather than tossing them.

2. Be a green pooper-scooper.
The ideal is to flush your dog’s poop, so it will get the same treatment as human waste; you can even buy flushable, biodegradable poop bags. The runner-up option is tossing a biodegradable poop bag in the trash; composting dog poop is controversial, since its bacteria could make you sick if it’s spread on your veggie garden, but there are instructions on how to do it here.