It is estimated that as much as 12% of household waste is pet waste (Ref 1). This waste is organic matter that can be treated or composted and reused, yet most is buried in landfill. It is estimated the 6.3 million pet Aussie dogs and 4.9 million pet Aussie cats (Ref 2) produce about 2.9 million kg/day or 1,069 million kg/year).
Opportunities to improve dog and cat waste disposal methods currently exist in Australia but are not well known or promoted. Australian states, territories and councils all have more opportunity to implement strategies to promote and use commercial non-landfill methods to manage pet dog and cat waste such as:
1) Flushing for treatment by sewerage treatment utilities and
2) Disposal via food and garden organics bins (FOGO) for commercial composting (for public spaces as well as residential FOGO bins).
FOGO - There are 537 councils Australia-wide and just under half are in urban or urban fringe locations. According to the Brisbane Times in 2022 food organics and garden organics (FOGO) services were offered by 70 Australian councils (13 percent). While there are some FOGO services accepting pet waste (and this number growing), less than nine percent of the Australian population currently have a commercial FOGO service that accepts pet waste.
Flushing - It is difficult for residents to easily establish whether they can flush their pet waste. The common message provided by wastewater utilities is to only flush the three P’s - poo, pee and paper. What is often not explained is if the three P’s apply to pet poo. Residents of Melbourne Water, Urban Utilities and Tas Water can flush pet poo (about 24 percent of the Australian population).
In summary about 32 percent of the Australian population DO HAVE commercial non-landfill options for disposing of pet dog and cat poo.
The planet would benefit if Australian councils made commercial non-landfill pet waste options better known, understood and acted upon. Where there aren’t commercial non-landfill options, information about home composting via council Responsible Pet Ownership websites could help fill this gap.
Flushing dog and cat waste provides many benefits including:
1) Contributing to a circular economy, national and world waste targets.
2) Using existing infrastructure to accept and transport waste.
3) Providing appropriate treatment of organic waste.
4) Reducing methane production by aerobic digestion of organic matter.
5) Allowing re-use of waste biosolids.
6) Avoiding heavy and smelly residential bins.
7) Avoiding waste truck costs (driver wages, trucks, maintenance, tolls, fuel).
8) Avoiding landfill costs (dump costs per Tonne, landfill management).
Ref 1 - City of Airdre Technical Report: Residential Waste Audit, Sept 2017. Ref 2 – Animal Medicines Australia Pets in Australia - a national survey of pets and people 2022. Summary 2024
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