Pilot project will test dog owners’ willingness to dump doggy-doo in trash bins

Thestar.com
May 7, 2021

Finally, Toronto seems to have taken an interest in what people are doing with those little knotted bags of dog poop.

The city this week announced a 90-day pilot project to designate part of 10 street trash bins exclusively for dog waste, at parks and other places where people walk their dogs.

It issued a news release Tuesday that said “the first phase of the pilot will last three months and includes 10 bins adjacent to parks and in areas with a high concentration of dogs.

“One compartment on each of the pilot bins has been converted to accept dog waste. These compartments are labelled with stickers and should only be used to dispose of dog waste.”

It also said “field observations and waste audits showing a steady increase in dog waste disposal in litter bins. A spring 2020 audit identified 45 per cent of waste (by weight) in street litter bins as organic material, and 99 per cent was dog waste.

“The goal of the pilot is to see if dog waste collection in street litter bins is feasible and can help the city divert more organic material from landfill.”

While the city found that dog waste put into street trash bins is increasing, it’s my observation (along with many readers) that the number of poop-filled bags dropped on the ground is also going up.

I’ve written about it several times in the past year, mostly recently on Monday, a column that yielded a lot of email from readers who are fed up with poop bags tossed to the ground, sometimes beside a trash bin.

“It truly perplexes me,” said Geoffrey Rowan. “I just came back from walking my dog in Warden Woods, where we picked up about a dozen abandoned dog poop bags -- about typical for one of our walks.

“If you go to the trouble to bag it, you care at least about how you are perceived,” he said, adding, “it’s a social affront that takes planning.

“You bring bags, knowing your dog will poop. You know you will be walking past a garbage can but decide that you don’t want to carry the bag.”

Jennifer Temple said that when walking her two dogs, she “endlessly picks up after many irresponsible dog owners. I have on rare occasions picked up a bag and walked up to the dropper, saying, ‘Excuse me, this belongs to you.’”

Carol Potter said she takes it home and flushes it down the toilet, while a dog trainer named Cate said one of her favourite clients “would pick up the poo in a plastic bag, take it home, empty the bag into the toilet, and then wash out the bag for reuse.”

Others said more bins are needed and should be emptied more often, which is where the city’s pilot project has potential. It acknowledges that dog poop is a growing a problem, and that offering more ways to dispose of it is good.

If the first phase is judged a success (and why wouldn’t it be?) the city says it’ll be expanded to 30 bins for another 90 days, and then to 100 for a further six months.

But with hot weather on its way, what’s to be done about the smell of so much bagged, canned and overheated poop? A question for another day.