Pet food companies join initiative against plastic waste

The 20 companies – all of them based in the US, Canada and New Zealand – will finance the recovery of nature-bound plastic waste through the company’s social enterprise waste projects. 

According to the Pet Sustainability Coalition (PSC), the pet food industry produces an estimated 300 million pounds of plastic waste each year in the United States alone.

“Plastic is a huge problem in the pet food industry. While we are making strides to reduce plastic waste from our packaging and supply chain, we wanted to make an impact right now,” said Stewart Shanley, CEO of Earth Animal and one of the participants in the project.

Melissa Bauer, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Sustainability at PSC, said that her organization has detected packaging pollution as one of the industry’s greatest environmental challenges.

“We are excited to see many of our members are working with rePurpose Global to offset their packaging footprint while also investing in socially equitable environmental solutions directly within the global communities most heavily impacted,” she said.

230 brands across 26 countries and three continents are working with rePurpose Global to measure, reduce, and offset their plastic footprint by removing 14 million pounds of plastic from nature every year.