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News  »  Dog Bins



   Dog Bins    30 May, 2017

North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) is set to rebrand its litter bins to accept dog waste from April 2017 in a bid to save £29,000 a year. Instead, dog walkers will be encouraged to bag and dispose of dog waste in their purple bins or park litter bins across the district.

Using litter bins to dispose of dog waste eliminates the need for dog owners to find and use specific dog bins. There will also be an additional eighty litter bins installed in local parks as part of the move to help ease the increased volume that the litter bins will be accommodating. As the litter bins are also maintained more frequently than dog waste bins there is less chance of them overflowing.

To help with the rationalisation of the district’s dog bins and the move towards using litter bins for dog waste, the Council will launch an awareness campaign. Most dog owners are already dealing with their dog’s poo responsibly; however, the campaign ‘Bag it, Bin it’ will raise further awareness and reinforce the Council’s work to increase responsible dog ownership.

Vaughan Watson, NHDC’s Head of Leisure and Environmental Services, said: "As we all know, the funding structures that have been in place until now are being seriously eroded at all levels by Central Government and cost cutting decisions like this are being made by local authorities across the country. Currently NHDC spends over £29,000 every year to maintain the 432 dog bins across the district. Sending the waste collected from litter bins together with dog waste to landfill for disposal will cut costs and will have less of an impact on our communities than other options considered.

"Most dog owners are very responsible and do pick up after their pets, but some people ignore the rules and this creates a problem for everyone. Using park litter bins for dog waste is something that neighbouring authorities have already introduced, and they have been successful at managing the problem of dog fouling while reducing costs. We hope that dog owners everywhere will get behind us and support the campaign."

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