'It's just laziness': Dog poop bags annoy Fredericton trail users

Dog poop bags are popping up around trails and parks in Fredericton, and some trail users are tired of it.

"It's just laziness," said Marc Voisine, who walked his dog at Odell Park in Fredericton on Wednesday. 

Voisine said that he found a bag while he was walking near the Fredericton Botanic Garden. There are plenty of garbage cans around, and there's no reason to leave the trails a mess, he said.

"They're plastic [bags], and they're just going to stay and kind of ruin the environment."

Tony Walker, a specialist in plastic pollution at Dalhousie University, thinks that people leave these bags along trails because they believe the bags are compostable.

"I'm finding them hanging off trees, thrown deep into the woods, or two or three or 10 metres into the woods. These are not intended to be picked up," he said.

He went for a walk on a trail in Halifax and found more than bags in 10 minutes along the trail. He published a paper last week to bring attention to the issue, and to suggest to people that, if they think these bags will decompose in the environment — that's not how it works.

These bags claim to be biodegradable, he said, but they can only be broken down in industrial compost facilities at high temperatures and under controlled conditions. There are very few of those facilities in North America. Plus, because of the biodegradable label, they are allowed to contain up to 25 per cent fossil fuel-based, petroleum plastics.

"They just break down faster, and then they make microplastics but quicker," said Walker.

Biodegradable means that something will degrade and break down in the environment. It does not mean the same thing as compostable. 

"It's very confusing because they still use 'bio' because it's a greenwashing label. If you've got 'bio' in anything, it just seems natural and organic and good for the environment," he said.

In an email, Walker said that even bags labelled compostable can still contain plastics, which are harmful for the environment.

"If it doesn't say '100 per cent biobased' on the package, it likely contains some plastics," he wrote in an email. 

Em Allen walked their dog at Odell Park on Wednesday and, as usual, carried poop bags with them, Allen said.