A private company is doing its part to take the city’s waste collection to a new level.

Compost Montreal has been collecting organic waste, mostly food refuse, to use as plant fertilizer for nearly two decades. But this spring, it started collecting something else for the compost bin.

Pet waste.

“When I got the email [about the new service], I just went, ‘Finally,’” said Carolyne Barnwell, a resident of Outremont, shortly after her bin was emptied Monday morning. “I started last Wednesday when I got the bin. I have three big dogs, so I can tell you that the garbage gets full.”

Compost Montreal invites residents to sign up, for a fee. Subscribers get special bins, compostable pet waste bags and wood mulch, depending on the kind of animal in the home.

Workers from the company make the rounds once a week to collect.

“We’ve got all the neighbourhoods of the Island of Montreal that are open for collection, and waiting lists are building for all those areas that we’re not already servicing,” company head Stephen McCleod explained.

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He believes the city is missing an opportunity by not offering the service.

“Pet waste is a source of a lot of methane, so it’s really responsible for a lot of greenhouse gases and climate change that we’re working to reduce,” he said.

Since the composted material is used as fertilizer for plants, emissions are reduced.

Some cities, like Toronto, already collect pet waste as part of their compost collection.

McCleod concedes that composting pet poop is a challenge; it took his company years to find a suitable site to compost pet droppings.

“It was just continually searching, to be honest,” he told Global News. “The site has to be able to take compostable plastic bags. That’s a big part of it. It must be certified compostable — it can’t be biodegradable or oxo-degradable.”

“[With a compostable bag], you won’t even be able to find a trace of it in six weeks. It’s completely gone.”

The next step for the company is to partner with municipalities to see if bins can be set up in public spaces, like dog parks.

McCleod already has agreements with some businesses to install larger community bins on their property for subscribers out walking their dogs.

Only people who pay for the service can access those bins, via a combination lock.

Barnwell thinks a service like this is long overdue.

“There are lots of dogs and more and more dogs,” she said. “I hope more pet owners will go right into [the service]. “I’ve been asking my municipal representative when is this going to be done.”

She hopes eventually municipalities will be able to offer the service as well.

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