Dog poo is a health issue as well as a societal and environmental one.  With dog ownership increasing markedly in recent years, the issue is certainly becoming more important.  What can a dog owner do in dealing to dog poo, apart from the obvious?

Let’s put some numbers on the issue.  There are approximately 40,000 dogs in Christchurch.  Each of these dogs produces an average of something like 200g of excrement each day (probably more but let’s verge on the conservative side). That’s a total of 8 tonne each day or 2,920 tonne of dog poo each year; the equivalent of 83 enormous truck and trailer units full of it! Picture that.

If we conservatively estimate that half of this output is deposited and cleared away from around the family home, that still leaves a large mass that is deposited around streets, in parks, on beaches and on the riverbank.  Even if two-thirds of this was picked up by responsible dog-owners, that still leaves 480 tonnes of dog poo which will, by various routes, pollute the stormwater of every year’s rain events and eventually affect the waterways of the city.

Not that dog poo is the worst offender in this regard by any means.  Testing carried out by ESR in 2015 for the City Council has determined that the greatest source of E. Coli in the Ōpāwaho Heathcote River is from avian sources – ducks and geese.  It is only following rain events that canine sources, along with human (from sewage overflows) and ruminant (cow, sheep) sources, are detected at significant levels.  Reducing the water fowl population, particularly the exotic species like Canada geese, which each excrete more than a kilogram of faeces a day, is vital.

However, that greater priority should not prevent us doing all we can to reduce bacterial pollution from dog poo.

We should also give some thought to the tonnes of dog poo, sealed in plastic bags, that is added daily to our landfills where, away from oxygen, it will produce methane.  Any reduction in this daily tonnage will be useful for the environment, also.  

So, here is a staged approach to what dog owners might accomplish in regard to their dog’s (or dogs’) poo…

Beginner – the least you can do! At the very least, as much dog poo as possible needs to be collected from where it has been deposited and removed from immediate pollution of our waterways by placing it in the red bin for collection by CCC.  Where there are no bins provided in your local park or exercise area, take the poo home to place in your own red bin; you are as responsible for the waste your dog creates as you are for the waste that you create be it takeaway packaging or bottles. Take it all home to process properly in a recycling, waste-reducing system.

Beginner plus – just a little more!  Use a compostable or biodegradable bag.  If it goes into the CCC red bin, chances are this will do little as the decomposition needs oxygen to make it happen and there is little of that in a landfill.  But, it is better than nothing.

Intermediate – a great bound forward! Create your own composting process for your dog’s poo. This is best kept separate from your other composting so that any pathogens that linger are not introduced into your own crops.  You can easily dedicate a composting bin for dog waste, adding grass clippings or similar with each deposit to aid the decomposition.  This is odourless and just leaves the used plastic bag for disposal in the red bin.

Intermediate plus – a bound-and-a-half forward! Compost the bag as well in your dog compost.  Theoretically, if you use a compostable bag it will decompose but you will probably find that this needs to be achieved in a hot compost, a topic all of its own!

Advanced – dedication to the environment!  Compost your dog’s poo and recycle the plastic bag by washing it out for reuse for future dog poo collections.  A plastic bag can last a surprisingly long time if it is rinsed immediately after the poo has been deposited in your dog compost; just half-fill the used bag with water, close off the top, sluice the water vigorously inside a few times and empty the water into the compost.  Then peg the bag on the line to dry ready for reuse.  Note that the rinsing process is also a test of whether the bag is still leak-proof or whether it has reached the end of the reuse cycle!