Dog owners might misinterpret significance of ‘eco-friendly bags,’ says teacher
Dog poop bags are appearing around routes and parks in Fredericton, and some path users are tired of it.
“It’s simply laziness,” said Marc Voisine, who strolled his dog at Odell Park in Fredericton on Wednesday.
Voisine said that he discovered a bag while he was walking near the Fredericton Botanic Garden. There are a lot of trash bin around, and there’s no factor to leave the routes a mess, he said.
“They’re plastic [bags], and they’re simply going to remain and type of destroy the environment.”
Tony Walker, an expert in plastic contamination at Dalhousie University, believes that individuals leave these bags along routes due to the fact that they think the bags are compostable.
“I’m discovering them hanging off trees, tossed deep into the woods, or 2 or 3 or 10 metres into the woods. These are not planned to be gotten,” he said.
He opted for a walk on a path in Halifax and discovered a number of bags in 10 minutes along the path. He released a paper recently to accentuate the concern, and to recommend to individuals that, if they believe these bags will decay in the environment, that’s not how it works.
These bags bring an eco-friendly label however, he said, however they can just be broken down in commercial garden compost centers at heats and under regulated conditions. There are extremely few of those centers in North America.
Plus, due to the fact that of the label, they are permitted to consist of as much as 25 percent fossil fuel-based, petroleum plastics.
“They simply break down quicker, and after that they make microplastics, however quicker,” said Walker.
Biodegradable implies that something will deteriorate and break down in the environment. It does not imply the exact same thing as compostable.
VIEW | The CBC’s Aniekan Etuhube (and Mocha) on the issue with poop:
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“It’s extremely complicated due to the fact that they still utilize ‘bio’ due to the fact that it’s a greenwashing label. If you have actually got ‘bio’ in anything, it simply appears natural and natural and great for the environment,” he said.
In an email, Walker said that even bags identified compostable can still consist of plastics, which are hazardous for the environment.
“If it does not state ‘100 percent biobased’ on the package, it most likely includes some plastics,” he composed in an email.
Em Allen strolled their dog at Odell Park on Wednesday and, as typical, brought poop bags with them, Allen said.
Typically, when Allen heads out, they see disposed of poop bags one or two times per walk, they said.
“It’s type of gross. I imply, I get upset due to the fact that I’m someone who brings them around. So to simply see them resting on the side of the path when I’m, you understand, bring mine up the path to the closest trash bin,” they said.
“It’s not enjoyable, and I understand that, however I seem like it’s type of part of the obligation to look after the park and your dog.”
Matthew Flanagan jogged through Odell Park on Wednesday without a dog, however he utilized to have a pit bull.
He said that, if individuals do not look after their family pets and get after them, public, dog-friendly areas might start vanishing.
“I’ve seen one sort of simply tossed onto the side of the path, a poop bag, and I’ve seen one that wasn’t even got. Somebody simply left it type of in the middle of the path,” said Flanagan. “I’ve just remained in the park for absolutely no minutes.”
Neil Trebble, Fredericton routes supervisor, looks after routes around the city and ski routes near Killarney Park. He said that individuals leaving dog poop bags around routes and parks is a continuous concern, which there suffice trash bin for individuals to appropriately deal with them.
There have to do with 25 to 30 trash bins at Odell Park, Trebble said. There are some concerns with accessing trash bins in the winter around the border of Killarney Park, for example.
Garbage collection crews clean the trails three to four times a week, Trebble said, to make sure trails are clean.
Littering problems go “above and beyond” dog poop, he said. People leave pop bottles, chip bags, and other garbage that belongs in a trash bin.
It’s frustrating that people put it in bags before they leave it, he said, because those bags will take years to decompose, and he has no idea why people would do that.
“People have to have a responsibility for not just themselves, but they should have a responsibility for the community. And if you’re going to be a pet owner, you have to have responsibility for your pet as well,” he said.
City says residents ‘insist’ on littering
In an emailed statement, Brad Cameron, director of communications for the city of Fredericton, said that the city concerns “a number of tickets’ for individuals who have violated the city’s bylaws about picking up dog poop.
“Despite the bylaw, signage, social media, common sense and general respect for others, some residents insist on taking the time to bag up their [dogs’] business, carry it with them and then discard the bag along the trail or in parks,” the statement said.
“There aren’t people wandering around without the knowledge that you’re suppose to clean up up after your animal when you do that.”
