“Seventy percent of pet parents are looking for ways to make a positive impact on the environment,” Joanne Dwyer, vice president of corporate social responsibility and sustainability at PetSmart, told TriplePundit. “They want to be able to do that through easy, small changes they can make in their everyday lives.” That’s why PetSmart is partnering with sustainable dog product maker West Paw to pilot an in-store toy takeback program.
They are testing the pilot, which began last month, in 75 PetSmart stores across California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona. It’s starting in the West Coast market because of the higher likelihood of consumer participation, Dwyer said. The pilot was originally slotted for three months, but it could be extended. The hope is that it will be successful enough to be worth expanding to more stores.
West Paw accepts its own Zogoflex and Seaflex toys by mail as part of its Join the Loop recycling program, but a partnership with PetSmart allows any brand of plastic or rubber dog toys to be reborn as new toys and product. All customers have to do is bring their furry friends’ toys with them on their next trip to a participating PetSmart and place them in the bin at the West Paw display. Recycling is limited to plastic and rubber — meaning no tennis balls, ropes, plushies or mixed-material toys.
![The box that people can put toys in to be recycled.](https://back.3blmedia.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/PetSmart%20Toy%20Recycling%201.jpg)
In addition to expanding West Paw’s recovery capacity to include other brands, the partnership with PetSmart eliminates additional waste and emissions associated with shipping toys through the mail.
“We put those toys on our own trucks that travel back to our distribution centers,” Dwyer said, adding that the toys are sent to distribution centers near a West Paw recycler. “The ability to use that reverse logistics system is critical [to] sustainability … because we’re not adding extra freight like we would if we mailed something.”
Once the toys are in the recycler, they are separated and made into pellets. The pellets are used to make new Zogoflex products — which are made of rubber and plastic and can be recycled in the same way over and over again — and Seaflex products, which are made of a combination of Zogoflex and plastic bonded to ocean
While it’s too early to know the impact of the in-store takeback program, Dwyer said West Paw recycled more than 102,000 pounds of material into Zogoflex and Seaflex in 2023 alone. Not all of it comes from old toys, of course. The company also converts other plastic waste into pet products. In 2020, it saved more than 16 million plastic bottles that would otherwise have ended up in landfills.
![West Paw's toys are made from recycled materials as shown.](https://back.3blmedia.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/PetSmart%20Toy%20Recycling%202.jpg)
“The amount of toys we collect is going to be one of the biggest metrics,” Dwyer said of how the pilot’s success will be measured. “[But] we’d also be interested in customer feedback about ease of use because, again, is this something we can expect them to do over and over again? Is it easy enough? Memorable enough?”
Buyer response has been positive so far. They seem excited about the option of getting a toy, he said. Employee feedback will also be important in measuring program viability. If associates have to remove large amounts of items that don’t fit recycling parameters, the company needs to rethink how the program is delivered.
Ultimately, the pilot’s success depends on changing consumer behavior, which Dwyer recognizes as a major challenge. Another is that the general pet industry is behind environmental action. “We don’t have a lot of opportunities, partnerships or avenues where we talk about this within the pet industry,” he said.
PetSmart is also looking to change consumer behavior and make a big impact on environmentalism in the pet industry with a second pilot this summer. The pet supply company will work with recycling business TerraCycle to recover multi-layer pet food and treat bags that cannot be recycled through traditional means. That’s a big step in the right direction considering the industry is responsible for 300 million pounds of plastic packaging annually, with 99 percent of the multi-layered stuff destined for unsustainable disposal.
“Part of what I think is important is that we’re really trying to make more sustainable products, like the West Paw product line, that are more accessible to all customers so that they’re not just found in the kind of suits that place. We are trying to democratize sustainability,” said Dwyer. “We want everyone to have access to these products that are better for our pets, better for the planet. Just seeing the initial response from customers on social media and hearing from some of our associates in stores are really, for me, very hopeful and hopeful.”
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Riya Anne Polcastro is an author, photographer and adventurer based in Baja California Sur, México. He enjoys writing anything, from gritty fiction to business and environmental issues. He is particularly interested in how sustainability can be used to encourage economic and environmental equality between the Global South and North. One day he hopes to travel the world with nothing but a backpack and his trusty laptop.
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