His elected member’s motion for staff to source a new brand of compostable dog waste bag was approved 7-2 at a December 15 council meeting.
“The current bags are wholly unsatisfactory,” he said.
“They are hard to remove from the holder, the handles rip off when they are removed, and quite often the bags break open when they are removed.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOW“Complaints have been received about the currently provided bags and people living on or near the borders of Nedlands have adopted the practice of getting bags from adjacent local authority areas (such as Subiaco and Cottesloe) because the Nedlands bags are so bad.”
The staff comment said it had a current $36,000 contract with Nature at Work Packaging for biodegradable and compostable dog waste bags.
A 12-month supply of 500,000 bags was due to arrive late last month.
“We cannot now cancel this contract with the goods in transit unless there is a significant breach by the contractor,” staff said.
“Previously we used a 100 per cent plastic supplier (currently used in Subiaco) before the introduction of biodegradable compostable bags.
“While these bags were significantly cheaper to purchase… we changed because of the hidden costs of bags which were being left around the parks and littering them and the foreshore, where they… looked unsightly, had to be hand picked up, as well as being a hazard to wildlife.”