Pooch Paper Looks To Score Big By Taking Dog Poop Sustainability To ‘Shark Tank’

Dog poop can be a big environmental problem, and Pooch Paper is hoping to bring a solution to Shark Tank.

The business is being featured on the October 23 episode of the ABC reality show, promoting a type of paper that aims to introduce a measure of sustainability to the dog poop bag industry. As Business Insider reported in a product review published the month before the episode aired, dogs can produce hundreds of pounds of waste a year, with much of it ending up in landfills inside of plastic that takes a long time to break down and requires considerable energy output to create.

Pooch Paper markets an eco-friendly alternative to these containers, selling sheets of recycled, non-chlorine-bleached paper that are manufactured using renewable energy. As founder Tracy Rosensteel told the outlet, they use a process that reduces the overall environmental footprint and create products that are better for the environment than traditional plastic.

“Our paper is made with recycled, unbleached, uncoated softwood pulp using a machine-finished, sustainable manufacturing process,” she said.

The company’s website added that Pooch Paper can help divert some of the massive amounts of plastics headed straight to the landfill after cleaning up canine droppings.

“Research suggests over 500 million single-use plastic dog waste bags are thrown into landfills each year in the U.S. alone. These bags add to the global warming issues related to methane gas emissions and micro-plastic pollution,” it noted.

As the Business Insider review noted, Pooch Paper is billed as easy to use, with one sheet able to hold the output of two dogs for a single walk. Though it may look and feel a bit different than traditional bags, the article added that the product was able to deliver.

“The texture of the paper took a few days to get used to, but the grease-resistant coating made from corn helps get the waste up into the sheet in just one try,” the review noted.

It was not revealed ahead of the Shark Tank episode whether Pooch Paper scored an investment, though environmentally sustainable products have historically been popular with the show’s investors.

This season of the ABC reality show has been billed as a way for viewers to see how small businesses are navigating the coronavirus pandemic, and Pooch Paper appeared to be built to handle some of the changes. The company maintains a robust online presence, selling its product not only on the website, but also through a number of major online and retail outlets.