Picking up without plastic

You're standing in line at the supermarket, dreading the moral dilemma that will soon face you: "Paper or plastic?"

You try to be environmentally conscious. You recycle. You take public transportation. You know that the correct answer is, "I have my own reusable bag." But you're a dog owner, so the temptation to answer "plastic" can overwhelm your better environmental nature.

Most towns have laws about picking up dog waste. And the average dog owner goes through lots of plastic bags to do just that. But if you've read the article "Polymers Are Forever" from the May/June 2007 issue of Orion magazine - orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/270 - you know that polyethylene (which is what most plastic shopping bags are made of) never goes away, and that there's a continent-size patch of plastic bags floating out in the Pacific Ocean. So what's a dog owner to do?

You can "repurpose" your plastic bread bags as poop bags (and you should), but you can only eat so much bread. You could try using paper bags (but we've tried this, and we really don't recommend it).

Or you could buy bags made out of organic material that will degrade and not leave any traces behind under the right conditions. As Jim Capistran, director for the Center for UMass Industry Research on Polymers in Amherst, explains it, starch-based bags and those made from polylactic acid, or PLA, are biodegradable when they're exposed to heat and water. (PLA is also used to make dissolvable stitches and biodegradable fishing line.) One such brand, the corn-based BioBag, will decompose in a composting facility or open-air landfill, according to biobagusa.com, and will also break down in fresh or salt water. You can buy them on the website or at Whole Foods stores ($5.99 for 50 bags).

Armed with biodegradable, compostable bags, you can just say no to plastic and still keep the sidewalks poop-free.