GREEN SPACE: Greening your pet -- not that it cares!

Sure, Fido and Fluffy are wonderful, integral parts of the family, but how much are they adding to your carbon footprint?

Luckily, there are some great ways to reduce their carbon paw print, keeping your furry love guilt-free.

With dogs, when it comes to pooper scooping, invest in some biodegradable bags. (Hopefully, your reusable shopping bag habit has meant a drastic reduction in extra plastic bags lying around...) A brand available locally is BioBag, carried by Michigan Green Safe.

For cats, it's all about the litter. Stay away from clay-based ones, which are most mainstream litters, and stick to brands made from recycled shredded paper. There are many brand options on the shelves of pet stores like Pet Supply Plus, et al.

Bonus for apartment-dwellers: paper litter is flushable!

If you have the dough, consider organic pet foods, which can get pricey but, then again, so is Iams. Again, many of these lines are carried at the larger pet supply stores.

Here's a list of options that Grist curated:
Organics 4 Your Pets
Natura Pet Products
Heidi's Homemade
Newman's Own Organics Premium Pet Food
Castor & Pollux Pet Works

And, in the wise words of Bob Barker: "Help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered."

That's probably the greenest thing you can do.

Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh