Pets at Home is introducing dedicated recycling points for flexible pet food packaging.
The initiative, which is being supported by pet food producers Mars and Purina PetCare, aims to combat packaging waste in the sector.
Pets at Home has partnered with environmental charity Hubbub to run the trial, which has so far been rolled out in 40 stores and three Vets4Pets practices in the UK. After the trial, it will be rolled out across the country with the aim of having recycling points in the majority of Pets at Home stores by the end of next year.
Working with specialist recycler Enval, which has developed a microwave-induced pyrolysis process that recycles and recovers flexible, rigid and complex plastics, Pets at Home and its partners are establishing the first store take-back and recycling scheme specifically for pet food packaging.
PLASTICS
The process, thought to be a world-first solution to recycling flexible plastics, involves heating the packaging up to 600 degrees to separate the aluminium and plastics layers. The aluminium is recovered, clean and ready to be recycled, and the plastic is converted into oils and gases. The oils can then be reused for other products and Enval is now working with several plastic producers that are aiming to use them as feedstock for new plastic, with the ambition of achieving full circularity.
The gases are used in a conventional gas generator to produce the electricity to run the microwaves, thereby making the process self-sustaining. By using electricity to heat up the process it means that the Enval plant does not have a stack or chimney making it clean, efficient and economical for both post-consumer and industrial waste.
Flexible plastics (plastic that can be bent, squeezed or scrunched) represents 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.”
LANDFILL
Alison Bramfitt, group packaging manager for Purina, said: “Purina’s vision is that none of our packaging ends up in landfill or as litter, we are committed to working towards a waste free future. Currently in the UK only 16% of councils collect flexible plastic. Collaborating with Pets at Home and Mars allows us to provide our consumers with further recycling options and increases the total amount of flexible plastic that is currently collected and recycled. We also continue to work on innovative solutions that will make our packaging easier to recycle”.
Kim Smet, interim general manager for Mars Pet Nutrition UK, added: “We’re delighted to be a partner in this initiative. Supporting the collection and recycling of flexible plastic packaging is an important step in realising our ambition of creating a circular economy where packaging never becomes waste, and ultimately of creating a better world for pets.”
Eval CEO Carlos Ludlow-Palafox said: “Pets at Home is the first retailer we have worked with on a store take-back scheme and we are really looking forward to seeing the results.
“We are using this trial as a test bed for the future, where we hope to make flexible plastic recycling more accessible for both industrial and consumer waste through installing 50 new plants across the UK in the next five years. Our aim is to make previously unrecyclable plastics valuable, paving the way for environmentally responsible packaging solutions.”
