USA – Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc., has announced expanding its recycling program to 1,000 pet care centers across the US.
This initiative, highlighted in the company’s 2023 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report, focuses on recycling low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic, which is not typically accepted in curbside recycling.
The program, which began as a pilot in 41 stores in April 2023, successfully recycled four tonnes of LDPE plastic over seven months without increasing the company’s carbon footprint or labor costs. This success sets a promising precedent for sustainable practices at Petco.
Petco utilized existing back-haul shipments to transport LDPE from its locations to distribution centers, where it was sent to a specialized recycling partner.
The recycled plastic was then repurposed into composite decking material used in both commercial and residential settings.
This collaborative effort involved multiple Petco teams, including sustainability, store operations, waste management, and distribution center leads, all working together to reduce plastic waste.
With the program’s expansion to hundreds of Petco pet care centers nationwide, the company expects to divert approximately 150 tonnes of plastic from landfills annually.
“Our LDPE plastic recycling program is a great example of the sustainability mindset embedded in Petco’s operations and the key role our Petco partners play in improving our processes to help preserve the well-being of our planet,” said Francesca Mahoney, Petco’s VP of Sustainability.
“We will continue prioritizing these efforts so pets and pet parents can thrive in healthy environments for generations.”
Petco, a fully integrated omnichannel pet health and wellness provider, operates over 1,500 pet care centers across the US, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
Meanwhile, data released by the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) showed that slightly more than 5 billion pounds of post-consumer plastics were recovered for recycling in the United States in 2022.
This marks a decrease of 1.4 percent, or 71.2 million pounds, from 2021. However, U.S. reclaimers acquired 21.4 million pounds more U.S.-sourced post-consumer plastic compared to 2021, totaling 4,307.8 million pounds, or 85.9 percent.
The data, prepared by Sonoma, California-based Stina Inc., based on surveys conducted by Stina and the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), can be accessed at the 2022 U.S. Post-consumer Plastic Recycling Data Dashboard.
In 2022, 93.7 percent of plastics collected for recycling in the U.S. were processed and remanufactured into new products in North America, with exports overseas falling to 6.3 percent from 30.6 percent in 2013.
Of the 5 billion pounds of plastics recovered in 2022, bottles accounted for 2,784 million pounds (55.5 percent), nonbottle rigid plastics made up 1,111.8 million pounds (22.2 percent), film totaled 1,110.3 million pounds (22.1 percent), and “other plastics” amounted to 11 million pounds (0.2 percent).
The “other plastics” category excludes foam but includes wovens, nonwovens, and other flexible products and packaging.
Among bottles collected in the U.S., 96.5 percent of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, 98.4 percent of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles, and 97.6 percent of polypropylene (PP) and other bottles were recycled in North America.
The overall bottle recycling rate in 2022 was 27.8 percent, down from 29.3 percent in 2021. The PET bottle recycling rate was 29 percent, and the HDPE bottle recycling rate was 27.1 percent.
By continuing to implement and expand recycling initiatives, Petco and the broader industry are making strides towards reducing plastic waste and promoting sustainability.
For all the latest packaging and printing industry news from Africa and the World, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
