Port Moody’s dog owners will soon have more places to deposit their doggy’s deposits.
At its meeting last Tuesday, city council voted to expand the city’s dog waste diversion program to add five more collection bins and three additional locations. The program will also become a permanent fixture in the city’s budget.
Two new bins will be placed at Suter Brook, and one each at Easthill park, Mosaic park and at the Noons Creek trailhead along Forest Park Way. The new locations were identified based on existing garbage bins already being overloaded with dog waste, public feedback and the density of the surrounding neighbourhood.
The dog waste diversion program started in 2016 with specially-marked red bins at the Rocky Point dog park and in the Klahanie neighbourhood.
In January, 2018, more bins were added at other locations popular with dogs and their people; Bert Flinn Park, Shoreline trail and the Alfred Howe greenway.
Since the, according to a report presented to council by Port Moody’s acting superintendent of parks, Robbie Nall, the city’s has collected an average of 1,325 litres of doggy doo from the five locations every month. Once it’s been collected, the waste is removed from the plastic baggies and then transported to the Metro Vancouver waste treatment plant on Iona Island.
Coun. Diana Dilworth praised the program’s success.
“This is something that has been embraced by our community,” she said.
The additional bins will boost the annual cost of the program from $12,100 to about $24,000, with half of that money coming from the city’s sanitation utility reserve fund.
