Sliced Bread

Dog Poo Bags

Owners clearing up after the UK's 11 million estimated pet dogs have a bewildering array of bags from which to choose. Some are labelled 'degradable', others are called 'biodegradable', 'compostable and biodegradable' or 'recycled.' So which ones are best for the environment? And what is the most environmentally friendly way of disposing of our dogs' doo?Greg Foot is on the case on behalf of listeners including Nicola Jones and Craig Hart who are perplexed by the claims being made on dog poo bags. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad relating to another consumer product and wonder if there’s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Jon Douglas

While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up... Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers. In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist, Sean Farrington, examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did people back it? Why did they get burnt? Some of the world's most successful businesses have also brought us some of the world's most remarkable failures. So, what led them to be toast? And what can we learn from their stories today? Sean unpicks all the early optimism, hype and ambition. He learns about the tremendous success of a brand before hearing how it faltered, with help from expert commentators and people who were directly involved. How do they view things now and what, if anything, could have been done differently? The self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White, is alongside him, analysing the missteps that changed a brand's fortunes and reaching her own, often instructive, conclusions. From big tech to high street retail and, of course, food, Toast tackles the business ideas that, one way or another, ended up cooked. Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in February. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds.Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4.