Making changes in your life to be more environmentally aware is vital.  Sometimes it means working to change a habit.  For me, one I am currently working on is giving up coffee drinks with single use straws.  We make these changes because we want a better, healthier world for all creatures including our beloved pets.  Going “green” with your dog isn’t as complicated as giving up single use plastic and future dogs will thank you for the greener world you left them.

Dulse and Rugosa is a company and of course we are going to sing the praises of our Maine Seaweed Shampoo for dogs.  It’s a great shampoo for all dogs but super beneficial to dogs who have skin conditions including hot spots, itchy patches or just plain old sensitive skin.  In terms of being “greener” there are two great benefits to our dog shampoo.  First, packaging.  Instead of a plastic bottle our shampoo is a round bar similar to soap and packaged in recycled tissue paper.  There is no plastic bottle to recycle.  Actually with plastic the correct term is “downcycle” because unlike glass or metal plastic can not be recycled into another bottle or container.  It gets “downcycled” into carpet or plastic wood.  Let’s say you use a bottle of shampoo every three months- that’s 4 less bottles per year.  Over time that really adds up to a great savings.  The second benefit is how long your doggie shampoo bar will last- way more than a month.  Of course it depends on the size of your dog and how frequently you shampoo but it will last much longer than any of your bottles of shampoo.  That’s good for the environment and your wallet.

Now for the poop bags.  It can be quite a problem because for most of us humans the first kind of plastic we give up is grocery bags.  But then what do we do with Fido’s poop?  The best blog I have read on environmentally friendly poop bags is from Dogster Magazine.  Their online article “7 Green Poop Bags Reviewed” was extremely detailed and well researched.  The author, Julia Szabo didn’t just examine the bag but looked at packaging, if plants were involved were they GMO as well a chemicals and biodegradability.  The article is a bit old, published in 2012 but full of useful information.

Then there is plastic used in all sorts of dog toys.  A great article to read is “Plastic and Your Pets” found on the Life With Dogs website.  One of the biggest problems for humans and dogs is the chemical BPA- Bisephenol A.  According to the author, Susan Stoltz, when you buy plastic toys packaged in plastic there is a greater chance of the chemical BPA being leached into the toy.  Then your dog chews it.  The FDA says BPA is safe but recently studies have lead to a few “cautions”.  It seems like one of the areas where time will tell but for safety choose some toys that are non plastic.  Tree Hugger has a great list of sustainable dog toys or maybe a stick from outside.