Open the empty bag before it goes in the bin

An empty snack bag still smells of food. A dog does not know it is empty, only that it smells like something worth getting into.

One family’s account is why this page exists. Their dog put its head into a bag and could not get it off. A member of the family found the dog and tried at once to pull the bag away, and it was too late. They shared it as a warning, and the people who answered argued about what the warning should be.

Before an empty plastic food bag or a six-pack ring carrier goes in the bin, cut the bag open down its sides and snip each loop of the ring, so nothing is left that can close around a head.

Why a bag is worse than it looks

A veterinarian quoted in a 2016 report by a US television news station says a pet with its head in a snack bag is breathing hard and excited, that the bag is pulled in against its face as it breathes, and that suffocation can happen in as little as five minutes. Their advice is to keep all plastic food bags out of a pet’s reach, whatever its size, and to cut each bag on all sides before throwing it away. It covers more than snack bags: cereal liners, pet food bags, bread bags, any plastic bag that held food.

One person says why a trapped animal may not save itself: it does not understand why the thing will not come off its face, and may back up or give up rather than fight it.

How to open a bag

Cut it down the sides until it lies flat. One person who does this with chip, cereal and dog food bags says a flat bag cannot wrap around a head, even if the animal reaches the bin. A flat bag has no opening left to go over a head, which is the whole point of the cut.

If scissors are too much trouble, some people say tearing a bag by hand is quicker and gives the same result. Some people warn that a thick, foil-lined bag is harder to tear than a thin one, so use scissors on those.

One person suggests that balling a bag up in your fist would do. Another says cutting it flat is the only sure way, and the veterinarian’s advice is to cut. This page goes with cutting.

One person pointed out that a stacked-chip tube is no fix: a rigid tube can trap a small dog’s head too.

Cutting is a layer, not a lock

Some people say cutting bags is too narrow. A dog can find bones, glass and other hazards in a bin, so they say a bin the dog cannot get into, and training, matter more. Others answer that clever dogs open ordinary latches, and that cutting removes this one danger whatever else goes wrong, because it works even if the dog gets in.

One person who wrote as an expert says the cut closes only one window of risky behaviour and does nothing about a dog’s wish to scavenge. Another says training often teaches a dog only to avoid being caught, so it can fail when nobody is home.

What decides which you reach for is whether you want a safeguard against one known danger today or a fix for every danger in the house. They are not rivals, and the cut costs seconds.

The same habit for rings and loops

If your drinks come in plastic ring carriers, some people say to snip each loop before the carrier goes in the bin, because birds, turtles and fish can get caught in them. Some people say to cut each loop once and keep the plastic in a piece rather than cutting it into little bits, because small pieces blow about more easily and are easier for an animal to swallow. One person says some loops are too thick for ordinary kitchen scissors, and one person says the whole pack takes seconds, not minutes. Some people say milk-carton loops carry the same risk, and one person says to cut the ear straps off a disposable face mask before it goes in the bin.

Is it still worth doing? Some people say it is out of date. The United States requires ring carriers made or imported for use there to break down under sunlight: a 1988 federal act, put into regulation in 1994, with tests that use strong ultraviolet light or 35 days of summer sun at sea until the plastic is brittle. Others reply that weeks is long enough for a trapped animal to die, and that plastic breaking down is not the same as it disappearing; some people note that it leaves smaller pieces that cause their own pollution. One person says sunlight is what does the work, and a ring in a bin gets none.

Some people also say rings are now a small part of ocean plastic next to fishing gear and big industrial sources, and that effort belongs there. Others reply that this takes seconds, and that the animal in the loop pays for it. This page does not claim that cutting rings changes the ocean. It says the cut costs seconds and the risk is to one animal at a time.

Another objection is that waste in a bin or in recycling does not reach the wild. Some people reply that waste can fall off trucks, blow out of bins, or be dumped, and that recycling plants sometimes landfill what they receive.

Do not burn it instead

Burning is not the alternative to cutting. The US Environmental Protection Agency says open burning of household trash releases dioxins, fine particles and other pollutants, and calls uncontrolled backyard burning the largest quantified source of dioxin emissions. Cut it, and put it in the bin.

Who this page is not for

If an animal has a bag on its head right now, this page is too late for you: take the bag off and call a vet, as the note above says. It gives no first aid and no CPR.

If your drinks come in cartons or cans and nobody in your home has a pet, there is little here. The bag advice is for homes with a dog or cat; one person adds a child’s head to the risk, and this page cannot say more than that.

If you came to cut down plastic waste in general, this is not that. It is about the shape of a few items on their way to the bin, and it does not say whether cut pieces can be recycled. Your local collection service decides that.

If you are the person who lost a pet this way, whose fault it was is not what this page is about. Some people who replied to the family said no amount of care stops every accident, and that blame helps nobody.