No, she's not some strange superhero with a very unfortunate name. Jennifer Blaese, also referred to as ‘Poop Bag Girl,' has quickly made a name for herself as she's been hawking her patent-pending biodegradable dog waste bags all over the country. Her goal is to disrupt the dog waste industry with her innovative waste bags and educate pet parents about the negative effects of plastic waste at the same time.
Blaese, CEO of Chicago startup Loft 312, said that after developing these dog waste bags, it became the company’s goal to change the way people think about all types of plastic bags, not just dog waste bags.
A new ordinance that went into effect in the city of Chicago on August 1st of this year may inadvertently help them with her mission. The ordinance bans the sale of lightweight plastic bags at big-box stores, leaving many dog owners wondering how they will clean up after their dogs.
FULL LIST: Top 50 Best Dog Pooper Scoopers
Blaese says that the bag ban gave her the opportunity to really get the word out about her new product. The conversations happening around the city about landfill waste was just the opportunity they needed. More than 50 cities in California have enacted a similar ban, and a state-wide ban could be voted on next year. Blaese says that because of these bans, the Pacific Northwest and the West Coast have been a much easier market for her bags than the Midwest.
Blaese, who lives with her two dogs Mable and Kane, started the company in 2012 when she was searching for a poop bag dispenser that had a sleeker design than the standard ones you find on the market. She decided to create her own solution, the Loop dog waste bag dispenser, that connects to your pet’s leash at two points.
RELATED: What Future Pet Technology Every Dog Owner Will Want?
After she had created her own dispenser she realized that the waste bags she was using were not as green as she thought. Blaese says that she was frustrated as a consumer because company’s were “green-washing” her into thinking that their products were environmentally-friendly, when they actually were not. She didn’t realize that many biodegradable bags need sunlight and oxygen to break them down, which is not something they receive in landfills.
That’s when she decided to design her own product…again. GreenLine dog waste bags contain an additive that allows them to biodegrade completely, even in a landfill, in less than three years. A box of eight rolls of the bags sells for just under $10 on the company’s website, which is higher than most other similar products.
