Yes, you could just get your beloved kitty a massive bag of dry food and be done with it.
But they’re utterly spoiled, and instead you buy them a different multipack of meat and fish wet food, each portion individually packaged in its own little pouch.
There’s just one problem (beyond the expense and the knowledge that your cat is eating better than you): you have no clue what to do with the pouch once you’ve squeezed out those gravy coated chunks.
We do worry about our environmental impact when we’re chucking away three pouches a day.
Thankfully and finally, someone’s come up with a solution.
Mars Petcare has partnered with TerraCycle to launch a free nationwide recycling scheme specifically for pet food packaging.
Through the new scheme, pet owners can drop off their used pet food packaging at a number of drop-off locations around the country, or they can free-post them directly to TerraCycle.
Once the packaging has been collected it will be sorted, cleaned, shredded, and turned into small plastic pellets which can be converted into useful plastic items, such as park benches, construction items, and fence posts.
Better than it ending up in a landfill, right?
The packaging that will be eligible for the recycling scheme include wet pet food pouches, flexible plastic treat bags, and flexible plastic bags for dry pet food.
Don’t panic about cleaning the pouches before you drop them off, as any food residue will be composted. Sweet.
Of course, this isn’t the perfect solution – ideally all the packaging we use should be easily recyclable and made sustainably. But it’s a handy way to deal with the issue of pet food packaging while we wait for companies to sort things out.
Mars Inc has made a commitment to make 100% of its packaging recyclable by 2025, so we may have a while to wait.
To recycle your pet food packaging, find your nearest drop-off point through the link or sign up to the TerraCycle platform to send used packages directly to them.