Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

[jezer]

I got one of my SPD cleats clogged up with the stuff on Saturday. That took some shifting

[mjr]

Certainly we see the dog-bins in the area full to overflowing - yuck! - with no apparent timetable for emptying them.

I think (and not owning a dog and dealing with figures every day, my memory on this isn't great) that where/when I lived before, the dog bins were checked several times a week and emptied if they were more than two-thirds full. Our village had attractive green spaces and so there were a disproportionate number of dogs being walked, plus a large sandy beach and a promenade that we wanted to keep poo-free, plus a neighbouring large resort that banned dogs from many areas in the summer, so we paid for extra dog bins - at least double what the district council provided - and they weren't cheap: the list price was something like £3 per bin per week, so it was easily a four-figure sum out of a village budget of around £50,000 (I think) even after negotiating a discount. Then we seemed to have a period where the refuse collecting service went bust every year or so - the village was almost tied to whoever the district used because the other services were far more expensive because they didn't have a suitable vehicle coming anyway... arrrrgh!

Providing for cycles is much easier than providing for dogs... but councils spend much more time working for dogs because if you don't then the area gets covered in small brown smelly presents... maybe some dirty protests from cyclists would get things moving

However I'd not like to see a return to the bad old days and the inadvertant "I trod in something"...

Why not? The bad current days of "I walked into something hanging from a tree" isn't much better, isn't it?

I think the orderlies and wardens should be given high-power hoses and if any owner doesn't clean up after their pet, then you wash the mess onto them and hose them down too. The current system of exercising areas, bins and fines doesn't seem to be working.

On the few occasions that the dog pood away from bin territory I tucked the bag into the base of a hedge (farm hedge, not garden hedge), reasoning that it was all compostable, it was out of sight, and nobody was likely to come into contact with it. Did I do right?

No, I think you should have carried it home. Those bags need to be buried (or equivalent, say processed by a food composter) to start composting and won't do it quickly if left on the ground - at best, the bottom will break down first and then the top can become a piece of flying poo-covered plastic. Some dog leads come with hooks near the handle if people want to avoid pocketing the mess. I'd love to know what a farmer thinks of that action.

[squeaker]

Oi! I was enjoying a late breakfast

[pwa]

Mjr

the farmers won't mind (I know them) and the bags won't fly around when they are tucked low down in the grass/nettle zone. I'm interested to learn that these bags don't decompose quickly, though.

Squeaker

how's your breakfast going?

[squeaker]

Squeaker

how's your breakfast going?

Better since I diverted into the 'No more technical officer..' thread

Good point about biodegradeable plastic though: try one in you compost heap for a few years...

[mjr]

the farmers won't mind (I know them) and the bags won't fly around when they are tucked low down in the grass/nettle zone. I'm interested to learn that these bags don't decompose quickly, though.

Oh they do once warm enough and dark enough, but tucked under a hedge will probably only trigger decomposition of the underside. Why won't the tops get blown away? The wind fairly whips through the grass here...

[Paulatic]

Speaking as a retired farmer, I don't suppose they will notice and neither will anyone else once the grass begins to grow. This time of year everything is visible. On farms it's usually black plastic and empty feed buckets adorning the hedgerows.

Speaking as a dog owner, I wish all dogs, like mine, were on a cereal diet. I just hate [inappropriate word removed] from tinned meat fed dogs. Those same dogs have a tendency to [inappropriate word removed] on paths. Bag it! Our own Lab will never [inappropriate word removed] on paths and always goes off and chooses a rough area to do the business. Can never be seen and usually breaks down and is used by other creatures down the line for food.

Speaking as a gardener, those supposed biodegradable compost bags are rubbish. I began by using them years ago and evidence of them ten years on are still there. I just use newspaper or kitchen towels among the compost now along with all the junk mail shredded. Bed the hens with it then onto the compost, wonderful stuff.

[Paulatic]

Wonder if I could have used crap? c**p

[pwa]

Mjr

if I thought they would get blown around I would be concerned. My intention is that they remain trapped by the surrounding vegetation at the base of the hedge. Plastic (degradable or not) is good at getting stuck in hedges but not so good at freeing itself. I must stress again that we are talking about tucked it at ground level, out of sight, to compost. I hate seeing bags hanging from branches like alternative Christmas decorations. And I hate dog poo being left where others can come into contact with it.

Pualatic, I'm a bit disturbed by your experience of degradable bags not degrading too well. I am having a rethink.

Another contentious are is apple cores, orange peel and banana skins. Chuck em in the hedge? Banana skins take an age to compost, so I've always told my kids to find a bin or hide them really well (eg under a log) to avoid visual mess while the thing composts. Orange peel also looks a bit of a mess if it is chucked where it can be seen, though it too will compost. Apple cores disappear faster, though it's still good to keep them out of sight.

[Vorpal]

Mjr

if I thought they would get blown around I would be concerned. My intention is that they remain trapped by the surrounding vegetation at the base of the hedge. Plastic (degradable or not) is good at getting stuck in hedges but not so good at freeing itself. I must stress again that we are talking about tucked it at ground level, out of sight, to compost. I hate seeing bags hanging from branches like alternative Christmas decorations. And I hate dog poo being left where others can come into contact with it.

Pualatic, I'm a bit disturbed by your experience of degradable bags not degrading too well. I am having a rethink.

The problem comes in when they are parlty decomposted, disturbed by hedge cutting, etc. little bits will come off the bags as they disintegrate and leave a mess. It probably isn't a huge problem with one or two bags, but I knew of a place where someone regularly did this, and there were little scraps of degraded doogie poo bags fluttering around.

The problem went away not long after I noticed it. Gossip warning: It was near a village, and I heard that the problem went away when the landowner began returning the little bags to the dog walker