Paper or plastic? When it comes to picking up after your pet, Gregg Eligh hopes you’ll use paper.
He’s introduced a Dutch-designed paper bag to Victoria, hoping to replace plastic. There’s a lot of plastic used in keeping sidewalks and green space free of dog droppings. He says Victoria alone keeps 56 bag dispensers stocked in city parks, and there are half a dozen just along dog-friendly Dallas Road that use 1,000 bags a day in peak dog-walking weather. Parks maintenance staff tell him garbage containers in the summer at some parks are mostly plastic bags with dog droppings.
Eligh hopes to convince people to switch. The paper ones decompose quickly in landfills or composters, while plastic bags can last for years and years.
On a visit to Holland, he discovered the paper bags — opruimzakje is the Dutch word — and has brought over 6,000 for demonstrations here. In Europe, he says the paper bags are in most countries, from Norway to Malta. Victoria is trying them at Topaz Park.
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“They realize that these plastic bags are going nowhere and filling the landfills,” he says. Eligh says his paper poop-scoop bag is no novelty. “I think this is a useful, workable product.”
“So many people have told me, ‘I feel good about picking up after my dog but I don’t feel good about putting plastic bags in the landfill.’”
Eligh has been a Victoria photographer for 30 years and isn’t quitting that, but he started Bio Poop-Scoop as his paper bag sideline business.
