Pets a Home installs special recycling points for flexible pet food packaging
Pets at Home is trialling dedicated recycling points for flexible pet food packaging in some of its stores and vet practices as it looks to combat flexible packaging waste.
The initiative is being supported by pet food producers Mars and Purina PetCare.
Pets at Home has partnered with environmental charity Hubbub to run the trial, which to date has been introduced across 40 stores and three Vets4Pets practices in the UK. If successful, the initiative will be rolled out further with the aim of having recycling points in the majority of Pets at Home stores by the end of next year.
The retailer is also working on the scheme with specialist recycler Enval which has developed a microwave induced pyrolysis process that recycles and recovers flexible, rigid and complex plastics. Pets at Home said the initiative is the first store take-back and recycling scheme specifically for pet food packaging.
Flexible plastics represent a quarter of all UK consumer plastic packaging but only 4% is currently recycled.
Louise Stonier, chief people and culture officer at Pets at Home, said: “We are really excited to be able to offer this recycling service as we know it is important to make it convenient for our customers to return their used packaging when they come to our pet care centres. This is all part of “Our Better World Pledge” to create a better world for pets and the people who love them “