The City of Springfield Missouri is shaming people with little flags for leaving their dog’s poop everywhere. According to UPI , Missouri is getting covered in little flags that have been stabbed into poop left for others to clean up. Little slogans have been printed onto these flags. The flag slogans include, “drop in the trash, not in the grass,” and “this is a nudge to pick up the fudge.”

Carrie Lamb, a water quality compliance officer for the City of Springfield  has noticed how much has been getting picked up but a larger amount that is left there. Says “Every couple of weeks, there’s about 25 pounds of pet waste that gets picked up but not by the owner. In an average year, that’s costing about $7,500 in public resources that are spent addressing that,” Lamb told KOLR-TV. “We feel like having a few city staff helping spread the word with these little flags is a great way to address that.” 

The waste has harmed the water supply and the overall health of the area. Lamb says “So just like human waste, pet waste contains bacteria and other pollutants that can be harmful to our waterways.” She goes on by saying “You can imagine when it rains, and we have all of this pavement, if there is pet waste on the pavement or even a small grass area, it’s going to get picked up by that stormwater runoff and carried into the nearest storm drain. In the downtown area, it goes into Jordan Creek.”

These poop flags are placed for the purpose of helping the 80% of sewage sludge be prevented from leaking into oceans. CoastalCare says “It’s legal to dump trash and waste into the ocean, and it is perfectly acceptable to dump raw sewage, paper, rags, glass, metal, bottles, or similar refuse, as long the location you dump the trash is at least 12 miles away from the nearest shoreline. It is not permissible to dumb waste there.”

 Hopefully people who don’t pick up their faithful companions waste will be shamed by these flags that say these shameful slogans like “Is This your turd? How absurd!” Maybe this will be their “nudge to pick up the fudge.” American Rivers says “3.5 million Americans get sick each year after swimming, boating, fishing, or otherwise touching water they thought was safe. That’s were the human waste mingles with household chemicals, personal hygiene products, pharmaceuticals, and everything else that goes down the drains in American homes and businesses into the ocean and any other large bodies of water.”