The 'extraordinary' poo bag problem plaguing one of Australia's largest cities (2024)

It's known as the Glitter Strip, but Queensland's second-largest city is facing a less-than-elegant problem with dog poo.

A report tabled to the Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) has revealed nearly 13 million free dog waste bags were used in the city during the 2022-23 financial year.

That's more bags than Brisbane City Council (9.6 million), City of Logan (486,000) and the Sunshine Coast Council (2.16 million) combined in the same period.

The Gold Coast is home to about 69,000 registered dogs — 40,000 fewer than Brisbane — but provides 3 million more poo bags per year than the state capital.

On a per dog basis, a Gold Coast groodle uses more than double the number of poo bags than a Brisbane-based beagle each year.

Chair of GCCC's planning and regulation committee Mark Hammel described the number of plastic bags used as "extraordinary" and suggested the design of the Gold Coast's bag dispensers was flawed.

"It can be difficult sometimes not to end up with a handful of five or 10 bags," Cr Hammel said.

"Especially at our bag dispensers closer to the beach, the weather can affect the bags and sometimes you'll pull out a whole clump stuck together.

"I think for some people that's done by accident, others I suspect it's done on purpose so that's a big part of it."

The report estimates more than 4 million bags each year are used for things other than dog poo — mostly rubbish, food, bait, wet clothes and nappies.

Environmental issue

Unlike its neighbouring councils, the Gold Coast uses plastic rather than biodegradable or compostable dog waste bags, contributing about 23 tonnes of plastic waste to landfill in the 22/23 financial year, according to the GCCC report.

Environmental campaigner and plastic bag ban advocate Jon Dee described that as a "major problem".

"The bags the council are using are degradable bags that contain heavy metals and unfortunately that means they can break down into very small microplastics," Mr Dee said.

"A lot of wildlife can end up eating the microplastics and once it gets into the environment it's almost impossible to get rid of."

The GCCC report shows the city pays 2 cents per dog waste bag, which translates to about $260,000 per year to cover the 13 million of them used.

The price of maintaining and servicing the bag dispensers has increased about 5 per cent each year since 2019/20, costing council $479,000 last financial year for a total bill of nearly three quarters of a million dollars.

The report recommends the council makes the switch to compostable bags.

That would double the per-bag cost but reduce the amount of waste going into the city's landfill sites, something the council has been striving towards for years.

In a piece for the The Conversation, professor of molecular biology at Deakin University Leigh Ackland said dog poo could be used as plant food if composted correctly.

"One medium-sized dog produces about 180 kilograms of poo a year," Professor Ackland said.

"Rather than wrap it in plastic and throw it away — where it eventually ends up in landfill — you can use dog poo as a sustainable source of fertiliser."

Council considerations

After the report was tabled to the GCCC planning and regulation committee meeting, councillor Brooke Patterson questioned whether out-of-town dog owners were in part to blame for the Gold Coast's St Bernard-sized bag bill.

"If you go to The Spit on any Sunday afternoon, good luck finding a local, most people are there with their dogs from Logan and Ipswich," Cr Patterson said.

"There are a lot of people who come here and use our facilities who aren't necessarily from here, and we welcome them, it's great."

Other councillors raised concerns about the cost and practicality of switching to compostable bags, especially given how many of the current bags the city is dishing out each year.

"Compostable bags in ocean-side locations might be difficult in keeping the weather out [of dispensers]," Cr Hammel said.

"If the weather gets inside you could lose a clump of 1,000 bags all stuck together."

Speaking to the ABC after reading the council's report, Mr Dee poured a dog-dish of water over that notion.

"Other councils have figured out how to do it so there's no reason Gold Coast council can't do the same," Mr Dee said.

"At the end of the day, as a dog owner myself, I believe dog owners should be taking their own poo bags because that's part of your responsibility as an owner."

GCCC's planning and regulation committee voted to defer its discussion of the dog waste bag policy and conduct further workshops and consultation to better understand the issue.