Greening My... Pet Care -- Practical Solutions for Lighter Pawprints

Our pets bring joy, companionship, and love, but they also leave behind a surprisingly large environmental pawprint. From food and toys to all that waste, the choices we make as pet parents add up.

In this Seeing Green Podcast episode in the Greening My… series, we dive into how to care for our four-legged friends more sustainably -- without compromising their health or happiness.

We cover:

• Food & Treats: exploring plant-based, insect, and cultivated proteins alongside upcycled ingredients and smarter packaging
• Toys, Bedding & Accessories: choosing durable, natural or recycled materials to cut down on plastic and waste
• Waste: greener solutions for pet waste and litter, from compostable bags to eco-friendly litter alternatives

Along the way, we spotlight Solutionist brands showing that pet care can be planet care — Open Farm, Shameless Pets, Petaluma, Earth Animal, West Paw and many more.

The episode wraps up with three simple tips for greener pet parenting, reminding us that small swaps in how we feed, play with and clean up after our pets can add up to lighter pawprints — for them and for the planet.

Transcript

Welcome to Seeing Green – Solutions for our Daily Lives. The podcast where we spotlight the brands, ideas and people making it easier to live sustainably every day.

Today’s episode is part of our “Greening My…” series—where we unpack our homes and our everyday routines to explore practical ways to make them a bit more sustainable. Let’s dive in.

Welcome back to the deep dive. We are continuing our Greening My… series looking at how we can make sustainability more well actionable in our daily lives.

Right. We've done the closet, the bathroom, the kitchen.

Exactly. But today we're tackling a member of the household that gets a lot of love but maybe not as much environmental scrutiny. Our pets.

Yeah. It feels like the next logical step, doesn't it? We shower them with affection, buy them all sorts of things.

Toys, fancy food.

But we don't always connect that consumption to their, you know, their environmental paw print. And that's really our mission today, Greening My… Pet Care.

Precisely. And just to be clear, the goal here isn't about making anyone feel guilty. We adore our animals. It's about giving you practical, useful knowledge. We want to show you how innovation is actually changing things in three key areas. What they eat, so food and treats. What they play with, toys and accessories. And well, the inevitable, how we handle their waste. 

Definitely. And it's worth mentioning as we go through this, quite a few of the brands we'll talk about have been featured as a Solutionist of the Day.

Oh, good point.

So, if you want to, you know, dig a bit deeper into what they do, you can find their profiles over on SeeingGreen.Eco.

Great reminder. Okay, so let's maybe start with the big picture, the scale of this whole thing. I think the global numbers are kind of mind-boggling.

They really are staggering. I mean, globally, we're talking about something like 470 million dogs and maybe 370 million cats kept as pets.

Wow.

And just here in the US, it's around 65 million households with dogs, 46 million with cats. That is a huge number of animals.

And that huge population drives this massive economic engine, right?

Oh, absolutely. The global pet care market is already over $300 billion this year.

$300 billion.

Yep. And projections show it could hit half a trillion dollars by 2030. A lot of that growth is people spending more wanting premium natural products for their pets. 

And food is the biggest slice of that pie, I assume.

By far. Pet food makes up something like 40 to 45% of all that spending. But what's interesting and kind of encouraging is that the fastest growing part of that food market is natural, premium, and specifically sustainable options.

So, the demand is shifting.

It seems like it. The market is definitely starting to respond, which is good because honestly, the current environmental impact is well, it's pretty sobering when you look at the data. And here's a statistic that really makes you stop and think. One analysis calculated that if you took just the meat eaten by dogs and cats in America

Uhhuh.

and treated them like their own country, they'd ranked fifth in the world for meat consumption.

Wait, fifth? Just the pets?

Just America's dogs and cats. Fifth globally. It completely reframes how you see that bowl of kibble, doesn't it?

It absolutely does. Wow. 

And because those diets rely so heavily on, you know, industrial meat production, their food alone is responsible for about 64 million tons of CO2 equivalent every year in the US.

64 million tons. How does that compare to something else?

Well, it's roughly the same emissions as driving 13 million cars for a whole year.

Okay, that puts it in perspective. 13 million cars.

Yeah, it leads to that analogy you sometimes hear. A large dog eating a typical meat heavy diet can have a carbon footprint pretty similar to owning and driving a large SUV.

And like you said, that's just the food. We haven't even gotten to the toys, the beds, the waste.

Exactly. Which I guess brings us neatly to our first main area to explore: pet food and treats. And maybe before we even talk about the ingredients, we should touch on the packaging because that's a huge issue itself.

Right. I saw a number like almost 300 million pounds of pet food and treat bags every year in the US alone.

Yeah, it's massive.

And apparently over 99% of those bags don't get recycled. Why? What makes them so difficult?

It's basically about keeping the food fresh and safe. So, the bags are made of multiple layers fused together, usually plastic, often with a thin layer of aluminum, sometimes paper mixed in.

Oh, okay.

And standard recycling facilities just can't easily separate those bonded materials. So, they end up in the landfill. It makes packaging innovation almost as vital as what's inside the bag.

We are actually starting to see some movement. There's this new wave of uh they're being called Solutionist brands. These are companies often started specifically to tackle this exact problem, the infrastructure and the materials issue kind of head on. They were experimenting, you know, often footing a pretty big bill with totally different ways of doing things.

Whether it's Petaluma pushing the science on compostable bags or Shameless Pets making smart choices for recyclable treat packaging or Open Farm figuring out the logistics for current tricky materials via Terracycle. They're all kind of mapping out different possible futures for packaging.

So, okay. If food is the biggest impact area, what are the main ways companies are innovating to reduce that… that protein footprint. The research seemed to point to maybe three main approaches.

That's right. You can sort of group the innovations into three buckets. First, developing really good plant-based formulas. Second, using novel proteins, things like insects or cultivated meat. And third, really leaning into circularity with upcycled ingredients.

Okay, let's take the first one. Plant-based. I think the first question a lot of people, especially cat owners, would have is, can these actually be nutritionally complete? Cats need meat, right?

That's the absolute critical question. Especially for cats. Yeah, they're obligated carnivores. That's why the companies leading in this space like uh PawCo Foods, Bramble, Petaluma. They put a huge focus on meeting or even exceeding the nutritional standards set by AAFCO.

AAFCO.

Yeah. The Association of American Feed Control Officials. It's basically the benchmark for nutritional adequacy in pet food. Meeting AAFCO standards is non-negotiable for a complete imbalanced diet.

Gotcha. So, PawCo, for instance, I read they use AI and something called green meat.

Right. They use AI to optimize the nutrient profiles and their green meat blend uses various plant sources to hit all the essential amino acid targets even for cats.

Interesting. And Petaluma.

Petaluma is cool because they combine plant-based nutrition with like operational sustainability. They use organic ingredients and they actually bake their kibble using solar power so it reduces the footprint even further.

Okay, so that's plant-based. What about the second bucket, the novel proteins? This sounds like science fiction almost.

It kind of does, but the efficiency gains are potentially huge. So you've got brands like Arch Pet Food and Tuggs using insects, specifically black soldier fly larvae.

Black soldier fly larvae. Okay.

Turns out these larvaes are incredibly efficient. They need way less land, water, and feed compared to traditional livestock like cattle or chicken, but they produce a really high quality hypoallergenic protein. Arch also uses things like silver carp, another sustainable choice. It's like protein farming, but you know, miniaturized.

And then there's the really cutting edge stuff called cultivated meat, like lab grown.

Exactly. So, Bond Pet Foods is using something called precision fermentation. They're essentially brewing animal proteins like chicken, beef, salmon, but without the animal. It's done using microbes. Kind of like making beer or cheese.

Wow.

And then you have companies like Meatly in the UK. They're taking cells from a single chicken egg and cultivating actual chicken meat from those cells theoretically forever from that one source.

Good grief.

Their estimates suggest it could use up to 64% less land and 28% less water than conventional chicken farming. It just totally changes the resource calculation.

Okay, that's mind-blowing. So, the third bucket was upcycled ingredients. This taps into food waste, right?

Precisely. It's a perfect example of the circular economy in action. Shameless Pets is a great example here. They take stuff like surplus fruits and veggies or spent grain from breweries.

Stuff that would otherwise be wasted.

Exactly. And they turn it into nutritious pet treats. They estimate they've saved over 3 million pounds of food from landfill already. It's just a clear win-win.

Yeah, definitely. And Bright Planet Pet, they focus on vegan treats.

Right. 100% vegan treats and they report achieving up to 90% lower carbon emissions and using about 68% less water compared to similar meat-based treats. So, the alternatives are definitely out there and making a difference.

So, lots of innovation happening. But what if someone feels they need to stick with traditional meat proteins for their pet? Are there better choices there, too?

Yes. Absolutely. If you are sticking with meat, the key things to look for are transparency and high animal welfare standards. So, you'd look for companies like Open Farm.

Okay.

They really focus on certified humane meat, sustainable seafood certified by Ocean Wise, and they make all their ingredients 100% traceable back to the source.

Traceability is huge. And Earth Animal, they were mentioned, too.

Yeah, Earth Animal is another great example. They use poultry that's certified by the Global Animal Partnership, or GAP.

GAP.

That certification means they're committed to high welfare standards throughout the animal's life, including using more humane processing techniques like controlled atmosphere stunning or CAS, especially in their wisdom recipes.

And Earth Animal is also tackling that packaging problem we talked about earlier, aren't they?

They are. They've made a big commitment aiming for 100% of their packaging to be recyclable, reusable, or compostable by the end of 2025. They say they're about 98% of the way there already. It shows that even with those tricky multi-layer bags, progress is possible with dedication.

That's really encouraging. Okay, so food is obviously a massive piece with tons of innovation, but the environmental cost doesn't stop at the food bowl. Let's pivot to the uh the physical stuff: toys, bedding, accessories. You mentioned a fast fashion dynamic here.

Yeah, I think that captures it well. That cycle of buying relatively cheap toys made from virgin plastics, synthetic fabrics. They don't last long. They break, they get chewed up, and they end up in the trash pretty quickly, contributing to landfill waste.

So, what's the solution? Build things to last.

That's a huge part of it. Durability is key.

So, you look at brands like West Paw, they make their Zogoflex toys specifically to be tough, but also non-toxic. No BPA, no phthalates, no latex.

Built to survive some serious chewing.

Exactly. But here's the really clever part for circularity. When that super tough toy finally wears out, West Paw has a program called Join the Loop. 

Join the Loop.

Yeah, you can literally mail the old worn out Zogoflex toy back to them. They grind it down and recycle that material into brand new Zogoflex products.

It's a closed loop system. True recycling.

That's fantastic. Taking responsibility for the end of life. What about things like beds? They get pretty gross and worn out, too.

Same principles apply. Durability and recycled content. A company called P.L.A.Y., that stands for Pet Lifestyle And You, they make beds and toys. And the stuffing they use called PlanetFill is made from 100% postconsumer recycled plastic bottles.

Oh, nice.

They estimate they've diverted something like 20 million plastic bottles from landfills just by using this stuffing.

That's impressive.

And they also have this really neat option called Fill-a-Bed. You basically just buy the durable outer cover and then you stuff it yourself with your own old textiles like old towels, old t-shirts, blankets you don't use anymore.

Oh, I love that. Reusing what you already have.

Exactly. It avoids creating demand for new synthetic foam fill and gives your old fabrics a second life.

Smart. And for other accessories like leashes or collars or grooming products.

Similar logic. Look for durable materials, maybe natural fibers like organic cotton or hemp for collars and leashes. And for grooming, there's a growing market for cruelty-free vegan shampoos and conditioners. HOWND is one brand that focuses on that.

Okay, good tips. All right, that covers food and gear. Let's tackle the third and uh let's be honest, maybe the least glamorous area, waste. We're talking poop and litter.

Yep. Unavoidable realities of pet ownership.

Let's start with poop bags. Billions of these plastic bags are used every year. It seems like an obvious target for improvement, but I hear there's confusion around terms like biodegradable.

Huge confusion. This is really important. Biodegradable sounds good, right? But all it technically means is that the material will break down eventually under the right conditions. The problem is those conditions -- usually involving heat, moisture, specific microbes -- are almost never met deep inside a typical landfill.

So the bag just sits there.

Pretty much. It might fragment a bit, but it doesn't truly decompose in the way people imagine. It just kind of mummifies, trapped without oxygen.

Okay, so biodegradable isn't necessarily the solution. It sounds like in a landfill context. What should people look for instead?

The gold standard, if you have access to the right disposal, is BPI certified compostable bags. BPI stands for the Biodegradable Products Institute.

BPI certified. Got it.

That certification means the bag has been independently tested and verified to break down completely and safely in a commercial industrial composting facility within a specific time frame.

But not everyone has access to industrial composting.

Exactly. That's the catch. If you don't have access to that kind of composting, putting a BPI certified bag in the regular trash doesn't help much either. In that case, probably the next best option is to look for bags made from postconsumer recycled plastic

Like the ones from Doggy Do Good or Lil’ Archies.

Right. At least with those, you're using plastic that's already in the system, diverting it from landfill temporarily rather than creating demand for brand new virgin plastic just to pick up poop.

Okay, that makes sense. Now, for the cat owners, litter. Conventional clay litter is the standard, but it has problems, too.

Big problems, actually. First, the clay itself, bentonite clay, usually has to be strip mined from the earth, which is environmentally destructive.

Right. Like mining for any resource.

But there's also a potential health concern. Many clay litters contain crystalline silica dust. It's naturally occurring in the clay.

Silica dust. Isn't that bad to breathe?

Yes. When you scoop the litter box or even when your cat just digs around in it, that fine silica dust can become airborne. And inhaled crystalline silica is classified as a known carcinogen by health organizations. It's a potential long-term risk for both the cats and the people in the household.

Yikes. Okay, that alone is a pretty compelling reason to switch. What are the greener and potentially healthier alternatives.

Thankfully, there are lots now. You want to look for litters made from plant-based materials. Things like corn, wheat, walnut shells, even recycled paper pellets. Brands like Sustainably Yours, or World's Best Cat Litter are good examples. They clump well, control odor, and avoid the mining and silica dust issues.

So, better for the planet, better for respiratory health. Seems like a win-win.

Definitely. One more quick tip on litter disposal. Try to avoid using plastic litter box liners if you can. They just add more plastic waste.

Right.

And check your local regulations, but if it's allowed, consider just scooping the clumps and solid waste directly into your main household garbage bag rather than putting it in a separate small plastic bag first. It just minimizes the overall number of small plastic bags going to landfill.

Good practical advice. Okay. Wow, we have covered a ton of ground here from uh insect protein and lab grown meat to BPI certifications and silica dust. It's a lot to take in.

It is.

Maybe we can boil it down. What are say three simple, actionable tips someone listening could use to start putting this into practice?

Okay, three tips. Tip number one, start by appreciating what your pet already has. Before you rush out to buy new eco stuff, take stock of the toys and gear you own.

Don't just toss everything.

Exactly. Can you rotate the existing toys to make them seem novel again? Can you patch up that slightly torn bed? Can you use those old towels as stuffing like with the P.L.A.Y. bed cover idea. Just extending the life of the products you already have is a huge first step in reducing waste and consumption.

Makes sense. Use it up, wear it out. Tip number two.

Tip number two. When it is time to replace something -- food runs out, a toy is truly destroyed -- make the sustainable alternative your default starting point. Actively look for the greener option first.

So instead of grabbing the usual, pause and think.

Right. Think. Could I try those insect based treats? this time. Maybe switch one meal a week to that plant-based option from PawCo. Should I buy the compostable poop bags or the recycled ones? Could I get that durable recyclable toy from West Paw instead of a cheap plastic one? Make the greener choice the go-to.

Okay, default to sustainable. And the third tip?

Tip number three, make one habitual swamp. Don't feel like you have to overhaul everything overnight. That can be overwhelming. Just pick one single easy to implement sustainable pet care habit and commit to sticking with it.

Like what? Give me an example.

Maybe it's deciding you'll always buy cat litter made from corn or wheat now. Or you'll always choose treats from an upcycled brand like Shameless Pets or Bright Planet Pet. Or maybe you commit to buying certified humane meat from Open Farm if you stick with traditional proteins. Just pick one thing that feels manageable for you and make it routine. Small changes add up.

Start small. Build momentum. I like that. That feels achievable.

Exactly.

This has been incredibly insightful. I think the big takeaway for me is that greener choices in pet care don't have to mean compromising on quality or you know the love and joy our pets bring us.

Not at all. Often it actually means better things, healthier ingredients, more durable, longe rlasting products and obviously less negative impact on the planet we all share with them.

Yeah, we focus a lot today on the products themselves, the food, the toys, the bags. But thinking about all this innovation, it makes me wonder. Here's maybe a final thought for you to ponder. Given how significant the environmental paw print is, and seeing these clever solutions emerging, especially around circularity like West Paw recycling toys, could this deeper focus on sustainability and ethics start to revolutionize other aspects of our relationship with animals?

Hmm… like what?

Well, could it influence things like say animal welfare frameworks or how communities manage feral populations? Could rescue organizations embrace more circular economy principles in their own operations? Moving beyond just the products we buy.

That's a really interesting thought. Shifting the focus from just consumer goods to the entire system. Yeah, that's definitely something to chew on. Could sustainability principles reshape animal welfare itself?

Hmm… food for thought. Well, thank you so much for walking us through all of this today. It's been eye opening.

My pleasure. It's an important topic.

We really hope this deep dive gives you some practical ideas and maybe some inspiration to start greening your own pet care routine. Remember that third tip. Maybe try making just one swap this week. See how it feels.

And don't forget, you can find details on many of the Solutionist brands we talked about like West Paw, Earth Animal, PawCo, and others over at www.seeinggreen.eco.

Perfect. Thanks again for joining us on the deep dive. We'll catch you next time as we continue exploring sustainable living.

This episode is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, legal or professional advice. Always consult relevant experts when making changes to your home, health or habits. 

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