There are as many dogs in Metro Vancouver as the combined population of the Tri-Cities and that means a lot of dog waste going into the trash or being left on trails and boulevards.
What can be done?
Port Coquitlam is trying to deal with the situation by placing dog waste-only bins at 19 locations in the city that are emptied weekly and taken to a wastewater treatment plant for safe disposal.
This means dog waste doesn't end up in the landfill, where it releases methane gas, a major contributor to greenhouse gas.
Metro Vancouver, meanwhile, has numerous suggestions on its solid waste services website for dealing with the waste of the region’s 350,000 pooches — including flushing it, calling a collection service for condos and apartments, building a composter using special instructions at cityfarmer.org for use on shrubs (not vegetable gardens), plus other recommendations for other animals.
Keeping dog waste off the ground is important because people will step in it; it’s not fertilizer and it does not disappear in the rain. Throwing a bag of animal waste into the bush or leaving it on someone’s lawn is not a solution, either.
As we live in increasingly dense neighbourhoods, being a responsible dog owner means taking proper care of dog waste.
