Brisbane dog owners are kicking up a stink over a shortage of dog poo bags that the city council has blamed on Sydney’s Port Botany wharf industrial dispute.
Bag dispensers at the council’s 150 dog parks have been left empty as the local authority waits for new supplies, with no date for when the compostable bags will be delivered.
The council says it spends $500,000 a year to supply the bags, distributing about 60,000 a week, but is now reminding owners to bring their own.
New signs at the dog parks say the shortage has been caused by “supplier delays related to an ongoing Port Botany wharf industrial dispute”.
Industrial action at the wharf was suspended more than a week ago, but the chair of the council’s community health and safety committee, Kim Marx, told the Brisbane Times on Thursday the bags were “still sitting on a pallet down there in Sydney wharf”.
Marx did not respond to a request for further comment.
In Brisbane, dog owners must carry at least two bags to collect their pet’s waste or risk being fined $66. The fine for failing to immediately pick up animal waste is $268.
Chantelle Hollenbach, a dog owner from East Brisbane, said the delay in restocking the bags was causing a public health issue. She said: “A lot of people are not picking up the poo. I’m at the dog park three times a day and I’m picking up other dogs’ poo because I don’t want to step in it and I don’t think it’s hygienic.”
She dismissed council claims that people were taking too many bags: “You grab a few to take with you – they’re used for wherever you walk your dogs. It should be obvious. Dogs do their business wherever they are.”
Experts say the shortage of council’s certified compostable bags is causing a bigger problem in the waste chain, as dog owners are using whatever plastic bags they can lay their hands on to dispose of their pet’s poo.
Leigh Ackland, a professor in molecular biosciences at Deakin University, said: “If they’re just putting it in a plastic bag, that will just take hundreds of years to break down or, even worse, it might break down and go into the river or the ocean as microplastics, where they cause havoc.”
Ackland urged pet owners to use only certified compostable bags, and warned many companies were greenwashing non-compostable bags with misleading “green” or “eco” labels.
“Unless it has the [AS4736] certified symbol on it, it’s not going to be suitable to compost, so people shouldn’t use them at all,” she said.
Pet supplies retailer Petbarn was out of stock of compostable bags in stores throughout Brisbane at the weekend, although they were available online.
Ackland said the shortage should encourage a government initiative to make compostable dog poo bags in Australia. “So many products come from China and we need to take the initiative to develop these little industries in Australia.”
The managing director of Australian compostable bag manufacturer BioBag, Scott Morton, said the technology and facilities to make the bags existed in Australia already, but councils were unwilling to pay extra.
He said: “Unfortunately the dog bags are very cheap out of China and local councils generally are not willing to pay for locally made.”
Morton said there was no reason for council to run out of the bags: “If Brisbane City Council wanted to guarantee supply they should at least work with someone local who keeps stock. We’ve got stock. If Brisbane City Council wants to give us a ring we can supply them.”
David Greavina, founder of social venture Compost Revolution, said dog owners could help solve the problem by choosing to compost their dog’s waste at home, with some of the specialised systems designed to break down dog poo attracting a $70 council rebate.
