If you are amongst the 92% of Aussies who are wanting to reduce your plastic use, congratulations! We share your commitment & while we shouldn’t forget that plastic has brought about some significant improvements since its conception, single-use plastic has certainly reached its limit.
Despite there being a high percentage of people wanting to make changes, our households are still disposing of a staggering 59kg of plastic waste a year! According to WWF, one of the biggest contributors to plastic waste in Australia is packaging, of which there are just under one million tonnes in our marketplace at any given time. They go on to state that only 12% of plastic packaging is recycled, with the rest going to landfill.
Pet food is packaged in non-recyclable, single-use plastic, even the paper ones are lined with plastic to maintain freshness. These packages are also designed to be appealing to consumers. Often multi-layered plastic with extrusions such as zip lock or Velcro seals and adhesive laminations. While this plastic has not been as obvious as plastic water bottles in terms of harm to the environment, it is just as significant. Over the average lifetime of your dog, we estimate it will use a minimum of 96 bags of single-use plastic. This does not take into account bags of treats either! Each plastic bag takes 1,000 years to break down in landfill, and, even then, that is only into small plastic particles, known as micro plastics.
Delivery Hound uses no single-use plastic & delivers door-to-door! With Delivery Hound you’ll only ever use two recyclable tubs. The one you have, and the one we’re cleaning, refilling & replacing for you. If you are playing your role or have committed to change, using this system of dog food will see you become a zero-waste household in no time.
That’s zero single-use plastic waste compared to throwing away 96 bags of single-use dog food packaging in your dog’s lifetime.
The system works in much the same style as the milkman once did. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this service, here’s how it worked!
People would buy milk from a delivery service daily. The milk was delivered in glass bottles & the empty ones were left out for the milkman to collect and replace with fresh ones.
We know that sustainability in pet food packaging is important to pet owners, unfortunately, the industry has been slow to react to this social issue. As well as eliminating single-use plastic from dog food, Delivery Hound has also reduced the carbon footprint by using Australian made Man’s Best dog food. That’s an immediate reduction on the environment as there’s less transport and shipping involved.
Some of the worst single-use plastics are being phased out state-by-state, such as plastic straws, plastic cutlery, and shopping bags. Unfortunately, at the moment plastic packaging in the pet food industry has no alternatives, so, it's here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Other things you can do to reduce single-use plastic and eco-friendly alternatives:
- Carry cloth shopping bags
- Invest in some beeswax food wraps & ditch the cling wrap
- Shop locally and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time
- Avoid takeaway coffee cups
- Replace bottled water with a reusable water bottle
- Think circularly, consider the longevity of your purchases, can it be re-purposed, re-used, or re-filled.
Organisations such as Plastic Free July and your local council will have tools and resources to help you make further changes. If everyone makes a small contribution, together, we will make a huge impact in the zero-waste movement!
©deliveryhound.com.au 2021
