A pathway-resolved national model for quantifying environmental loads from pet-dog waste: A case study of South Korea

A pathway-resolved national model for quantifying environmental loads from pet-dog waste: A case study of South Korea | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article A pathway-resolved national model for quantifying environmental loads from pet-dog waste: A case study of South Korea Jaeho Lee, Junbeom Kim, Dowan kim This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8648945/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Pet-dog waste (PDW) represents an emerging waste stream linking municipal solid waste and urban water systems, yet its pathway-specific environmental loads remain unquantified at national scale. We develop a pathway-resolved mass-balance model for South Korea that allocates PDW into three disposal routes (volume-based waste (VBW), sewer, and soil–water pathways) and four material categories (urine, feces, pads, bags). Using N/P concentrations in excreta, product-specific plastic composition, wastewater removal efficiencies, and soil-to-water delivery ratios, we quantify freshwater nutrient loads and VBW-related CO₂ emissions. Nationally, VBW accounts for 60.4% of total PDW, soil–water releases 31.1%, and sewer inputs 8.5%. Freshwater eutrophication is dominated by diffuse outdoor releases, delivering 2.10 kt N/yr and 141 t P/yr, primarily from urine runoff and uncollected feces. Climate impacts from PDW (55.4 kt CO₂/yr) arise mainly from pad plastics. Sensitivity tests show strong dependence on pad usage, feces dry-matter content, and hydrologic delivery. The model provides a reproducible framework for integrating PDW into nutrient-management and solid-waste planning and highlights the need for pathway-specific mitigation strategies. Pet dog waste Volume-based waste Municipal solid waste environmental load. Extracta Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files petdog12.10.docx Highlightspetdog.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 03 Feb, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 01 Feb, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 01 Feb, 2026 First submitted to journal 20 Jan, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8648945","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":585271150,"identity":"cf98305b-436f-4b52-8fcf-cc27d8ac9552","order_by":0,"name":"Jaeho Lee","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Seoul National University of Science \u0026 Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jaeho","middleName":"","lastName":"Lee","suffix":""},{"id":585271153,"identity":"55890206-351c-4458-a680-f1c81761fcc9","order_by":1,"name":"Junbeom Kim","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Technology of Troyes","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Junbeom","middleName":"","lastName":"Kim","suffix":""},{"id":585271155,"identity":"6e6d5bc5-14a1-401c-991d-d4d1d65b2701","order_by":2,"name":"Dowan kim","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA10lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDCCAyCiQqKejb0NIiBBnJYzNgn8PMdI0cLYlpYgOSONSC18x3sMPxewHc4zuPks8XFFhR2D5OwD+LVInjljLD2D53Cxwe20w4ZnziQzSPMl4NdicCN3gzSPxGHGDbfT2yQb25gZ5HgIOAyoZfNvHgOglpvHgVr+1ROlZZs0T0Ja4swZbMckGxsOM0gT0iJ55vw3a54DNsb8PGnJhg3HjvNI9hDQwne8Lfk27z8JOTb2Y4YPG2qq5STOENCCAQg5axSMglEwCkYBMQAAvOpDc6L6fzAAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"National Institute of Environmental Research","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Dowan","middleName":"","lastName":"kim","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-20 12:08:31","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8648945/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8648945/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":104779505,"identity":"dddf06c9-eb08-41e2-9436-d74969b3b0e6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-17 07:41:05","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":608369,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"PetdogwasteRevision12.101.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8648945/v1_covered_a98e3a36-0b42-4201-a67d-e8c50005f5f2.pdf"},{"id":104013287,"identity":"c3df8ca2-595a-440a-84f2-5bdd218aa3fe","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-05 16:19:28","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":151625,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"petdog12.10.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8648945/v1/a466c07e63c879100448b6ea.docx"},{"id":104402987,"identity":"7da2821b-c347-4436-ac30-b8b36628b7bd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 12:17:05","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":16606,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Highlightspetdog.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8648945/v1/b144851bccf728865626ac02.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"A pathway-resolved national model for quantifying environmental loads from pet-dog waste: A case study of South Korea","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"environmental-monitoring-and-assessment","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"emas","sideBox":"Learn more about [Environmental Monitoring and Assessment](http://link.springer.com/journal/10661)","snPcode":"10661","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10661/3","title":"Environmental Monitoring and Assessment","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Pet dog waste, Volume-based waste, Municipal solid waste, environmental load. 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