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'There was a small town in New Jersey called Nutley ..." Michael Brandow begins.
Trends don't usually begin in Nutley (population 27,000) and branch out worldwide. But Nutley! It's you we have to thank when we walk down the streets of Paris and are no longer bedevilled by evil black merde at every turn. For yes, this plucky little burg is, "as far as we can tell," Mr. Brandow says, "the birthplace of poop scooping."
Mr. Brandow knows because he is something of an expert. He's just written "New York's Poop Scoop Law: Dogs, the Dirt and Due Process."
Why write on that topic? "It's an aspect of dog ownership that's central to having a dog," he points out - and one that he describes as "emotionally charged." The wording seems mildly funny to me until I remember how, when I first began dog-sitting as a teenager, I assumed all eyes were on me as I groped for still-warm deposits with my bag-sheathed hand. And then, of course, there is the irritation we feel when we step in a turd ... who would leave such a thing lying on the sidewalk?
Although this boggles my mind, Mr. Brandow insists such negligence used to be the norm. When the poop 'n' scoop law was passed in New York, following Nutley's lead, in 1977, he says, "it was passed with tremendous controversy." And when it was proven to work, "they got calls from all over the world saying, 'What is your secret?' "
Gradually more cities came on board, including even Paris, once infamously home to a squad of workers on motocrottes, rideable green vacuums whose sole purpose was to de-merde the streets - although residents of the city say that streets not frequented by tourists are still a minefield.
The citizens of North America, by contrast, have fully internalized the poop 'n' scoop message. So it's on to the next hurdle: What to do with all that poo once we've picked it up. Most of us toss the bags into the park garbage can and give it no more thought. Cities are understandably perturbed about this. "Everywhere in the world, every municipality there is, there is a problem with dog waste," says Floyd Marlatt, a resident of White Rock, B.C., who is in the process of perfecting a dog-waste disposal kit for home use that has attracted interest from the City of Vancouver. He is somewhat secretive about how his kit works, although he mentions "enzymes" and swears the unit produces so little odour, you can use it in the house. He says it will be on the market next year.
Last year's audit of the City of Toronto's park garbage bins revealed a makeup of 23 to 27 per cent pet waste. No one was quite sure how to fix the problem. One city councillor suggested owners cart the waste home with them, but this was deemed an unrealistic solution - and in any case, it doesn't address the problem of the appalling ratio of plastic to poop.
Biodegradable bags, such as the Norwegian-made BioBags, break down easily in compost. Unfortunately, in some municipalities, when put out on the curb with other compostables, they are treated like other plastics, such as the bag that holds the garbage, and separated from the compostable stuff.
Green keeners with enough yard space can install a Doggie Dooley in their yard - it's a "digester," which works a bit like a septic tank, draining sanitarily treated effluent into the ground, but this doesn't help apartment dwellers.
Cities continue to struggle with the problem. In this realm, San Francisco shines as a global beacon. "San Francisco now is the first city in the world to start recycling [dog waste] into methane gas," Mr. Brandow says. "Fabulous."
The project is still in its infancy, but this may be the wave of the future, if we can get our collective act together.
And to think, "it all started in that town in New Jersey," Mr. Brandow says, "but, like a lot of things, it had to pass through New York before it became popular." Pardon the pun.
Lisan Jutras is a writer and editor who lives in Toronto with two cats and a small, sensitive street dog.
