3 tips on how to be an eco-friendly pet owner
You love your pet. You care about the environment. There’s no question that our carbon footprints include the paw prints of our beloved pets.
The ways you care for, feed and clean up after your pet have a sizable impact on the environment and the wildlife, we share it with. By using sustainable alternatives to many single-use pet products, you can reduce the amount of plastic that pollutes the earth.
But can they provide the same performance, or do you have to compromise?
Take care of “business” the plastic free way
Many may not realise the impact not cleaning up after your pet has on the environment – the risk of people stepping in it is by and large just the tip of the iceberg.
Pet waste carries disease and can pollute water systems and coastal areas through runoff, which has a negative impact on wildlife. Even if it’s away from where people walk, or just in your garden, it’s important to pick up your pets’ poop.
This can mean a lot of plastic waste that’ll take hundreds of years to degrade – but, if you switch to eco-friendly biodegradable or compostable poop bags that can be drastically reduced.
The Beco Pets Home Compostable Poop Bags are made from corn starch that has been converted into polymers. This means they have the same strength as regular plastic alternatives but with none of the nasties.
Better yet, the Home Compostable Poop Bags are designed to fit the Beco Pets Bamboo Poop Bag Dispenser seamlessly. Investing in a dispenser will help make sure you never run out of poop bags mid-walk, and it can attach to most leads or even belt hoops – or wherever you need it to attach to!
It’s made from a combination of bamboo, corn starch and rice husks, which provide the same strength and durability as plastic but without the hefty carbon footprint. It will last the years to come but will naturally break down of if you need to dispose of it for any reason.
Don’t replace plastic items with more plastic items
It’s no secret that plastic food bowls can emit dangerous chemicals over time. They also risk growing bacteria in the scratches, marks, nooks, and crevices when used by teething pups, or over-active dogs.
Investing in sustainable, plastic-free accessories like the Beco Pets Bamboo Dog Bowl or Beco Pets Bamboo Cat Bowl just makes good eco-sense. They are manufactured using sustainably sourced materials – a combination of bamboo, corn starch and rice husks, a natural by-product from rice farming, to be precise.
Not only that, they are incredibly durable, designed to last through the years of your pets’ life. The waved edges are perfect for those messy eaters (it’s never fun cleaning up the leftover wet food spilled all over the floor!), and the low rim of the cat bowl will protect kitty’s whiskers too.
If you find you need to dispose of it after its long life, it will naturally break down, leaving behind no chemicals or microplastics of any kind.
Buy pet toys made from sustainably sourced materials
This dog owners across the world will be able to confirm – our lovely pets can get through any number of toys throughout their lives. Well-chewed plastic toys can quickly end up in landfills where they’ll never decompose – this on top of all our other plastic waste creates even more problems.
Choosing toys made from natural fibres and recyclable materials is easy enough to do. Our range of recycled pet toys include toys made from 100% recycled plastic, hemp and cotton, and are designed to be strong and as long lasting as possible.
Hemp is a crop that grows in abundance in many conditions, which takes the pressure off prime agricultural land, and cotton is very strong and long-lasting, so reduces products going to landfill. And as an added benefit the hemp material also cleans your dogs’ teeth as they chew it.
You can even do DIY toys! Dogs love a good game of tug of war, and using an old, disused towel with knots tied along it could easily do the trick. For cats, a simple ball of foil on a string could encourage hours of play – or if you’re my cat, anything that can be made into a ball and rolled around the house!
And you don’t have to stop there – many companies now also sell toys, beds and other supplies made from reclaimed or sustainable products.