Anti-plastic bag campaigner Nicola Bould will present to the Port Chalmers Community Board today four possible options for collecting and composting dog droppings along the walk and cycleway.
She hopes fellow board members will give her idea a trial.
Ms Bould has been on a mission to rid the West Harbour area of plastic bags and in the past 16 months has given away more than 1000 reusable shopping bags made from recycled cloth, such as old curtains and tea towels.
Since getting her own dog four months ago, she has been tackling the issue of how to deal with dog droppings, without sending plastic bag-wrapped offerings to landfills.
She has had success with collecting the droppings in paper bags or biodegradable plastic bags and composting them at home.
The resultant compost could not be used on the vegetable garden, but it was fine to put around native plantings, she said.
The walk and cycleway was popular with dog walkers and if dog-dropping composting bins were installed, the resultant compost could be used on plantings along the cycleway.
"I am really hopeful people are going to be positive about this idea and at least give me a chance to have a go with it and give it a test run."
While she could not be sure people would use the composting bins, she thought the idea had "real potential".
"I went on a walk up the Pineapple Track the other day and it made me feel pretty sick looking at the very large rubbish bin filled to overflowing with parcels of poo."
Ms Bould is proposing the community board buy and install the bins, which range in cost from about $650 to more than $2000 for three bins, with council staff then maintaining them.
