Pet-food industry trying to learn new trick: Recyclability

By Karen Hanna 

Melissa Bauer’s husband is a rocket scientist. But even he has trouble understanding what’s recyclable and what’s not.  

Making that distinction easier — and helping others progress toward circularity — is her job.   

As the director of strategic initiatives and sustainability for the Pet Sustainability Coalition (PSC), Bauer takes on a lot of issues related to pets and their owners. Among other things, the group is studying packaging as part of a mission to make sure dogs, cats and their owners are all doing their part for the environment. 

One big step would be for companies to transition to recyclable, mono-material pet-food bags, Bauer said. 

“Based on testing we're seeing from dozens of brands and suppliers, the newer-technology, mono-material bags are able to offer the same (or better) qualities for barrier, spoilage, etc. as traditional poly-material bags,” she said. 

Like other experts on recycling, Bauer expressed frustration with the patchwork of recycling protocols in the U.S., as well as the confusion over what gets recycled and where. What some companies call recyclable is only possible with technologies that aren’t available everywhere. 

Pointing to her husband as an example, Bauer admitted it’s tricky. 

“Until I met him, [he] did not understand; he was that guy that they all are, that [say], ‘I hear that my plastic bags are recyclable, and I have a curbside plastic bin, and so that’s recycling. So, I will just dump it in there,’ ” she said.  “And he did not understand.” 

Established in 2013, PSC supports almost 200 pet-needs companies, including food supplier Hill’s Science Nutrition and retailers PetSmart and Petco. In addition to supporting labeling that makes recycling easier for pet owners to understand, it has undertaken a deep dive into the mechanics of packaging circularity. 

In 2020, it put bins outside 127 retailers in the Pacific Northwest as part of a pilot program to determine the feasibility of collecting and sorting pet food packaging. In just five months, it collected more than 8,000 pounds — considerably more than its goal of 2.5 tons. 

“There was just a lot of excitement from the consumer level to bring these materials back, so that was Lesson No. 1: Retailers and consumers really want a solution,” Bauer said. 

The problem of what to do with pet food packaging is daunting. 

About 300 million pounds of pet food packaging in the U.S. heads to landfills every year. 

Most of it is multilayer, flexible film, which is difficult to recycle, according to “Flexing Forward,” PSC’s initial report on the project.  

“Each layer performs a different functional purpose, and it is nearly impossible to separate layers from each other with the current state of recycling technology. Furthermore, the cost of recycling is more than the value of the materials in the package,” the report states. 

“Ninety-nine percent of the [pet] food packaging on the market today isn’t recyclable,” Bauer said. 

The next part of the project focuses on what to do with all that material. One recycling trial involving some of the material collected found it was surprisingly free of contamination, but the varying types and sizes of bags caused hurdles. 

 One possibility moving forward is expanding the uses of “recycle-ready” bags — PE bags that can be recycled. So far, those types only command a single-digit percentage of the market share. 

“If the pet industry is able to shift toward a single type of material used by all pet food brands and manufacturers, our packaging could be widely accepted at other national in-store recycling programs. Mono-material recyclable packaging is rapidly advancing in the pet industry and is a viable long-term solution that would redirect pet food packaging from going to landfill, to successful recycling,” the report states. 

Bauer believes that companies and consumers are aligned in wanting to see material reclaimed, rather than wasted.  

But they will have to work together to overcome the challenges. 

“I think expecting our consumers to basically have a master’s degree in recycling is an unreasonable ask. It is on our brands and our companies to be talking to our consumers and educating them,” she said. 

Karen Hanna, senior staff reporter

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