Oct. 11 (UPI) -- A Missouri city is taking an unusual approach to the problem of un-scooped dog droppings: planting little flags next to abandoned poop with slogans such as, "Is this your turd? 'Cuz that's absurd."

The city of Springfield is placing the flags in grassy areas downtown next to piles of dog poop left behind by owners out walking their pets.


The flag slogans also include, "drop in the trash, not in the grass," and "this is a nudge to pick up the fudge."

Carrie Lamb, water quality compliance officer for the City of Springfield, said the flags serve as light-hearted reminders.

"Every couple of weeks, there's about 25 pounds of pet waste that gets picked up. In an average year, that's costing about $7,500 in public resources that are spent addressing that," Lamb told KOLR-TV. "We feel like having a few city staff helping spread the word with these little flags is a great way to address that."

She said pet waste can pose a danger to water quality in the area.

"So just like human waste, pet waste contains bacteria and other pollutants that can be harmful to our waterways," Lamb said. "You can imagine when it rains, and we have all of this pavement, if there is pet waste on the pavement or even a small grass area, it's going to get picked up by that stormwater runoff and carried into the nearest storm drain. In the downtown area, it goes into Jordan Creek."