British Columbia

Surrey

The City of Surrey has developed a Dog Off Leash Area Strategy, 2012-2021, that includes a Waste Management section comparing potential future solutions.

Vancouver The City of Vancouver took a serious look at composting as a way to deal with the growing volume of dog waste in its public parks – see “Dealing with Dog Waste in Vancouver Parks / Preliminary Research for Dog Waste Composting at Everett Crowley Park,” LEES + Associates Landscape Architects. (No longer posted; contact the City of Vancouver. See LEES summary.)  The search for solutions continues.  “The city’s 11,800 kilograms of dog waste produced each year is too much for garbage collectors.”

Metro Vancouver will continue to pay contractors to cut open dig waste pick-up bags and stream the contents to a sewage treatment facility.  This is just one of several innovative solutions for recycling dog park waste that the city is pursuing to achieve near zero waste.

Metro Vancouver  instructs multi-pet operations to stream pet waste to their closest transfer station or wastewater treatment plant. Dog waste and cat waste accepted at wastewater treatment plants cannot be mixed with clay litter, sand, rock, grit or any kind of bag, including biodegradable.

In 2019 around 74 tonnes of dog waste were removed from Metro Vancouver regional parks, processed and transported to Iona Wastewater Treatment Plant. According to Mike Redpath, director of regional parks, seven other municipalities have started their own programs: Vancouver, City of North Vancouver, District of North Vancouver, District of West Vancouver, Township of Langley, Port Moody, and Port Coquitlam. Whistler

The City of Whistler contracts with a local compost facility which transforms dog waste from its park red bins into topsoil. Their Pick Up Protocol (PUP) program provides compostable bags along with signs, bins and composting services. The compost is tested in accordance with RMW guidelines and meets provincial requirements for Class A compost.