Kingborough Council will consider implementing compostable dog poo bags in the 2024/25 financial year.
Kingborough Mayor, Paula Wriedt said the Council deliberated over introducing compostable dog poo bags considering the financial and environmental costs of doing so, at the 18 September Council Meeting.
“In Kingborough there are 115 dog bag dispensers in various locations which all use 760,000 degradable dog poo bags a year,” Cr Wriedt said.
“These dog poo bags are currently sent to landfill.
“There have been many requests for Council to start using compostable dog poo bags in our dispensers.
“Unfortunately for compostable dog poo bags to work properly they must be commercially composted. To do this would require a completely new service estimated to be approximately $250K per annum.
“At the meeting, Council discussed the environmental benefits that would come from swapping the current degradable dog poo bags for composting ones.
“In particular, the benefit of reducing the amount of plastic used in our community.
“Whilst it would be fantastic to reduce the amount of plastic, the fact is the bags still end up in landfill and don’t compost, which is not ideal.
“As a Council we will revisit this discussion during the 2024/25 Budget process, weighing up the $28,000 cost and how it would be collected through dog registrations,” Cr Wriedt said.