We recently got a new dog. When I’m walking him I always bring a bag and pick up his poop. But is it ok to toss the poop in a garbage can at a stranger’s house, or am I supposed to carry it with me the rest of the walk? Should I expect to get yelled at if I’m seen by the homeowner, leaving a bag of dog poop in their trash?
A couple of notes:
No trespassing involved, the garbage is on the sidewalk or in the street.
Garbage vs recycling vs green waste is clearly marked & I’d throw in the garbage.
The bag is tied, no loose poop is going in the can.
Well I think you’re fine and I do this too, but I’m sure someone somewhere will be pissed off about it.
I do this sometimes but always feel guilty, and like I’m going to get caught and yelled at.
I put my dog poop in sealed sandwich baggies, and usually people’s trash cans are only out the night before it is collected, so they will never see my baggie. I can’t really see why it would be a problem for anyone, but people are wacky and phobic about dog poop and pee, so I dunno.
This is called theft of services. Although it is unlikely, someone could raise a legitimate complaint against you.
I don’t understand why someone would be mad at you for putting *garbage *in the garbage can. 
Someone who would get upset at that is someone with issues.
Hmm. Don’t you think there would be a big difference, legally, between dumping your trash in a dumpster and tossing, say, a used paper towel in as you walked by?
That thread is talking about dumpsters, not putting a bag of dog poo in a trash can.
Did anyone else read this as someone else’s garage?
My neighborhood has a bunch of signs “clean up after your dog.” Then the added bag dispensers - but no garbage. Finally there are two dispensers that have a garbage attached, but they are in random spots and other dispensers exist without garbages. The moral of the story is: if I am nowhere near a public garbage, I will use someone’s who left it out, but look around first. Nobody’s ever gotten mad, although if they did I’d wonder if they prefer the alternative of leaving it.
Theoretically, there shouldn’t be a problem with putting a small piece of trash in your neighbor’s trash can as you walk by, but some people are suspicious and may fear you are putting a firecracker, a venomous critter, or some other nastiness in the can.
To avoid confrontations or misunderstandings, I double-bag my dog’s solid waste and put it in a fanny pack I wear expressly for this purpose. I dispose of the waste in my household’s trash when I get home.
I’d much rather have someone put their trash in my trash can than step in a pile with my white shoes or bare feet.
I’m guessing that if they did get mad, the alternative they’d actually prefer isn’t the only one you suggest - they’d probably prefer you take it away and get rid of it elsewhere.
But yeah. Putting any kind of litter into someone else’s disposal facility is better than leaving it as litter, however, disposing of it in your own, or a public facility is better still.
Personally, I’d be pleased to see people putting their rubbish in my bin instead of throwing it in my garden, and I’d rather someone put their bagged dog shit in my bin than leaving it bagged on the path, or flinging the bag into a tree, which seems to happen a lot here. If I lived next to a busy dog-walking route, I probably wouldn’t be so happy if I found my bin consistently half full of everybody else’s dog shit, so I guess it’s a question of degree.
That’s what I thought at first!! My dad used to get the shovel, find dogshit and toss portions of it on to all of the neighboring dog owners property. (He’s a CPA, so it makes some kind of sense)
I don’t think it’s worth getting mad over, but it does make my presumptuousness meter ping a little. I can see how people might justifiably be a little annoyed at strangers helping themselves to their garbage cans. I doubt most people would really care, though. (But there are absolutely people out there who will think the second holocaust happened in their garbage cans. They’ll yell, they’ll call the police, they’ll leave passive-aggressive notes on the can, and they’ll probably never ever forget.)
I have been yelled at for doing it.
I would do it again (just not at his house).
Garbage can on the street = fair game for my doggy poop
My particular garbage collectors seem to leave tiny bags of garbage in the cans. I think it’s that the shallow-ish angle of the can being tipped into the back just doesn’t always let those tiny bags (which aren’t very heavy) fall out. I used to put small tied-off plastic grocery bags loose in my garbage can (from small ferret litter boxes, when I still had ferrets) until I saw that sometimes they weren’t going away when trash was collected. Meanwhile I’d have bags of stinky crap festering in what I thought was an empty garbage can, potentially attracting bugs/critters to check it out, yuck.
So I’d worry that the little tied-off bag would slip to the bottom of the can and not get collected, and the person would look in their garbage can and get annoyed over having to fish out someone else’s dog crap (bag intact or no) and re-bag it so it got taken away properly.
Something like this wouldn’t bother me in the least. It’s not like a neighbor we had at the last place we lived - she was too cheap to contract for garbage removal (it was something like $10/month) so after we went to work, she’d drag her trash to the end of my driveway where my cans sat! I came home sick one day and my drive was blocked with a big box from new patio furniture that I could see sitting on her patio… We put a stop to that little game.
But a passer-by tossing something into the can rather than dropping it on the street - not an issue at all.
I had no idea that could be illegal, but it makes sense. It would not bother me if a dog-walker tossed bagged poop in my trash at the curb (and I’ve done it myself, although surrepticiously); better than not picking it up at all.
When I lived a few blocks from a park, I discouraged my dogs from pooping until we got to one of the park trash cans so I could toss it right in. Eventually they went in that same spot reliably, and I didn’t have to carry two baggies of Rottweiler poop for the rest of the walk.
Yes it is illegal some places. I think it is even illegal on some places to put it in your own. I never have, but would be tempted to. I often do use commercial dumpsters. I am out in public with a dog frequently and always clean up after my dog. I usually take advantage of any trash container I find.