Pooch Paper

Made in the USA, Pooch Paper is a recycled, non-chlorine bleached paper alternative to single-use plastic dog waste bags.

Our sheets are 100% biodegradable, 100% compostable and are manufactured using renewable energy. Our fluorochemical-free, oil and grease resistant coating is made naturally during the pulp drying process in order to ensure your doggie’s doodie remains inside the paper and not on your hand! Most manufactured products contain PFAS chemicals that are nearly impossible to break down; Pooch Paper is PFAS-free.

Thank you for considering Pooch Paper as a plastic alternative in helping us save our planet one PUP at a time!

There are an estimated 22 billion pounds of doggie doodie dropped each year in the U.S. alone.

While not all dog parents pick up after their dogs, roughly ten million tons of dog waste and over 500 million plastic doggie bags end up in landfills each year.

Most doggie parents have become sensitive to the growing awareness around single-use plastics, and have begun to consider how dog waste bags play into this environmental concern. Some pet parents have chosen to “up cycle,” or reuse plastic bags that come from the grocery market, for example. Others use oxo-biodegradable plastic bags, which purport to be eco-friendly. The latest initiative to hit the dog waste bag market includes bioplastics.

While all of these efforts are one step closer to being eco-friendly, there still remains one common denominator across all of these categories: plastic.

Research suggests dog owners use more than 500 million single-use plastic bags for dog waste annually. Plastic is generally not biodegradable – it can take over 500 years to degrade, if it ever does. Some bags are manufactured as oxo-biodegradables, meaning that a formula called EPI is added during the manufacturing process to enable the plastic to break down quicker. However, oxo-biodegradables often do not fully disappear. Instead, they break down into millions of micro-plastic particles that enter the air we breathe, the water we drink and ultimately the food supply we consume.

Such micro-plastic particles may, among other things, carry toxic or carcinogenic chemicals used in making the plastic, or they can act as a carrier for pathogens and heavy metals.

Our planet and our pups are made to be loved!

In 2019 National Geographic released a study, Microplastics are Raining Down from the Sky, following an air quality research project conducted in remote mountain locations furthering this point. In 2020, Consumer Reports published their findings suggesting that humans ingest a credit card-sized amount of plastic each week due to increasing micro-plastic pollution.

If standard plastic and oxo-biodegradables are dangerous to sustainability, what about bioplastics?

Bioplastics have recently entered the marketplace in an effort to replace fossil fuels with renewable resources such as corn, starch and other proteins in the manufacturing process. In this case, bioplastics are capable of breaking down under controlled environmental conditions such as exposure to sunlight and moisture – two factors nearly impossible to guarantee or control when disposed of in a landfill.

Additionally, the combination of plastic and animal waste amidst compressed garbage in landfills results in the emission of methane gas into the air – which, as a greenhouse gas, absorbs the sun’s heat, thereby warming the atmosphere and adversely affecting the climate. The release of large quantities of methane gas is especially problematic in studies that show that, within the first two years of emission, methane can be measured around 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

We invite you to conduct your own research related to best practices and consider changing your daily plastic consumable to Pooch Paper! For further reading, Rose Seemann’s Pet Poo Pocket Guide provides a comprehensive “how-to” instruction for safely composting and recycling pet waste.

Where is Pooch Paper manufactured?

Our paper, packaging and fulfillment processes are all sourced and conducted in the USA. The vast majority of our pulp is sourced from the U.S. as well as Canada (with traces from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, England and Spain). The majority of our fibers are composed of balsam fir, white spruce, red spruce and black spruce.

Third party certifications include:

• SFI Certified Sourcing (CERT – 0062614)

• SFI Chain of Custody (SAI-SFICOC – 004065)

• FSC Chain of Custody (SAI-COC-002582)

• FSC Controlled Wood (SAI-CW-002582)

• PEFC Chain of Custody (SAI-PEFC-004065)

Our paper is certified with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® fiber sourcing program and the Forest Stewardship Council®.

How is Pooch Paper made?

Our paper is made with recycled, unbleached, uncoated softwood pulp using a machine finished, sustainable manufacturing process. Fully biodegradable and compostable, unbleached fiber produces a higher pulping yield, therefore lessening the overall environmental footprint.

Furthermore, our paper plant boasts reduced chemical and water usage, and biomass waste reduction during the manufacturing process that protects natural resources. Our grease-resistant coating on both sides of our paper is created during the pulp drying process (Yankee Dryer) so as not to add chemicals such as PFAS to our product.

What is the renewable energy source(s)?

Energy-saving, lean manufacturing processes using biomass and waste reduction/water saving programs protecting natural resources are deployed in the production of our paper.