Councillor wants to compost town's dog waste

A councillor is pushing for the composting of "unsustainable" amounts of dog waste following the approval of a raft of measures to tackle waste in a market town.

Gill Thomas, member champion for litter and clean environment at Stroud District Council, said that creative thinking was required to address the issue in the Gloucestershire town, which had led to "overflowing bins".

She described the council's recently approved litter code of practice, which includes tougher enforcement for takeaways and changing children's behaviour, as a "big step forward".

Ms Thomas said that dog waste composting had been largely ignored, but that "we've got to do something".

She said: "I have taken lots of advice. I've spoken to institutions and master composters about it. We're hoping a university might take it on as a research project."

Ms Thomas said there were millions of dogs in the UK, producing an estimated 1,000 tonnes of dog waste per day.

"It's completely unsustainable," she said. "So we need to think more creatively about what we can do to repurpose some of that."

The adopted measures in the litter code of practice include a "litter pickers for little pickers" programme at 45 schools.

Another initiative requires businesses to educate their customers on the disposal of packaging.

Ms Thomas said the measures would address societal behaviour. She hopes the changes will inspire other councils to do the same.

"We've got into the habit over the past couple of decades of saying that it's acceptable to drop litter," she said.

"Businesses could be doing a whole lot more to educate their customers about disposing of their packaging responsibly once they leave their premises."

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