The city of Port Coquitlam caused dog owners to freak out this week after reports that they were expected to carry dog poop home to flush it down their toilets.
Pet waste is prohibited from the city’s garbage under the Solid Waste Bylaw, the city posted on its website.
The City of Port Coquitlam provides dog owners with biodegradable pet waste bags in many local parks. These bags are only intended for transporting the pet waste for proper disposal.
The goal is to limit the amount of dog waste going to the landfill. It’s potentially hazardous to staff and it also produces methane, a powerful green house gas. On warm days it smells in bags, the garbage bin and work places. Please use the alternatives listed below to dispose of pet waste.
Instead the city suggested that pet owners should:
- Flush dog and cat feces (not kitty litter) in the toilet. Do not flush any bags as they will clog your plumbing and the City sewer.
- Build a pet waste composter. Dog waste will decompose cleanly and without odour in a composter and the resulting compost can be used on shrubs.
- Hire a professional pet waste disposal service.
- Search the internet for pet toilet training techniques.
This advice prompted considerable consternation among pet owners who wondered whether they should carry their dog poop back home in a bag to flush it down the toilet. That left the question of what to do with the poop-smeared bag?
CBC reported that it’s not so much a ban but a suggestion from the city. Metro Vancouver spokesman Bill Morrell said feces of any kind is prohibited from city garbage cans.
We do encourage people to dispose of it (dog waste) by composting, or flushing it down the toilet at home, but we don’t expect anyone to bag it at the park, take it home, take it out of the bag, and flush it down the toilet.”
Port Coquitlam’s manager of parks, planning and design said the wording on the city’s website should not be taken as a crackdown on poop disposal. Ron Meyers said dog owners should take the posts as suggestions on how poop should be discarded.
You’re not supposed to put any feces in the garbage, but every municipality and Metro Vancouver recognizes that’s not possible.”
h/t: CBC
