News Flash!!! There are no Poop Fairies!

What? Say it isn’t so…

Indeed, dog poop does not magically disappear, this might be news for some people… I came across an article on CBC regarding what Metro Vancouver (Canada) is doing with their dog poo. The City of North Vancouver and a growing number of Lower Mainland municipalities have also recently hired a business called Scooby’s Dog Waste Removal Service to collect the little bags of dog poo out of special red bins set up in Dog Parks.

That’s not the end of it. Bill Droeske, owner/operator and some of his staff, open up the little poop baggies, using scissors of course and dump the poopy contents into buckets which are dumped into collection tanks. The tanks are then taken to the waste water treatment plant (where raw sewage goes).

Why you ask?  Under Metro Vancouver regulations, dog poop is prohibited from  their household garbage, only small amounts are allowed in public or private garbage cans. Dog poop is considered organic waste, which contributes to methane gas levels. Therefore, dog waste is dealt with in local  waste water plants instead of dumping into landfills.

Metro Vancouver is now spending $120,000 a year on its red bin program, 12 parks and climbing. Three of  North Vancouver’s parks have the special dog poop red bins installed and have diverted a whopping 5,922 kilograms of dog waste since June 2016!!!  Bill Droeske’s business, since 1998, has been a dog poop scooping service, cleaning up residential yards. Today, Bill has a growing staff of 5, 2 of whom primarily spend their days opening up the dog waste bags at a table for $30 an hour.

Business is so brisk that Bill is considering hiring a third person to work at the dog poop table, in their dog waste depot.   Droeske admitts that the job is gross but it pays well!  I have to say that scooping dog poop is no big deal to me, it’s part of my job. However, actually opening up the dog poop bags, MILLIONS of them no less, not sure I could do that. I’d probably stop eating my meals…

In my dog kennel facility, we use 7 heavy plastic garbage bins, to store dog waste. I use a long handled poop scoop to collect dog poop from all of the outdoor playgrounds (I call them Parks). Once a year, my husband and I, move these poop storage bins to a composting area of our property and dump them. My husband is the ‘brave’ one, he gets the job of actually dumping the bins.

My job is moving the bins with our tractor and rinsing the bins off with a hose. Both jobs are gross but necessary! At those times I really wish I had my very own Poop Fairy. I say Kudos or Cheers to those brave men (and women?) who have the job of opening up those doggie poo bags!

P.S.- This is my very first Blog post, not just here on my new website, but like the first time ever! Interesting… that the first post would be about dog poo! I had poo on my mind that day, probably after cleaning up after so many dogs, my own included.

My next post is What Does a Dog Need?