We are Grade 3 students at Cordova Bay School. We have noticed that people are leaving their dog poo bags on our school property.

We are thankful that most dog owners use bags to clean up after their dogs, but we are not happy that they are throwing them on to our field. We work hard to keep our fields clean and don’t think we should have to clean up dog owners’ messes. What if everyone did that?

We have learned that dog poo can be harmful to us because it contains pathogens. We thought the dog waste was our biggest problem, but we now think the plastic bags are a bigger problem.

Most bags say they are 100 per cent biodegradable, but did you know that it would take two years for a biodegradable bag to break down? The bag that breaks down doesn’t disappear, instead it breaks into a million little pieces of plastic.

This plastic “dust” will be consumed by small organisms and make its way back to us through nature’s many food chains. Plastic bags end up in the landfill, but nothing degrades in the landfill because everything is packed down and no oxygen will reach the plastic. Even plastic bags that say “compostable” will not break down in the landfill.

We have researched, visited the landfill and now we have some questions. Vancouver has started bins for dog waste bags…could we do that in Saanich? Can there be a collection location for dog waste bags? If we had a collection site, is there a place that all of these bags and waste could go so it doesn’t harm others? Is it against the law to throw your dog waste bag on our field? If yes, are these laws enforced?

We love Saanich, but we need your help solving this problem.

The Golden Eagles

Cordova Bay elementary Grade 3s