I like many of the green pet ideas in this Huffington Post's article but our pets SHOULD NEVER chew on recycled plastic-- maybe its good for the planet but NOT for our pets. Would you let your human baby chew on recycled polyester filler? Babies do not even have teeth but yet we understand they should not chew on plastic. Guess what? Puppies shouldn't either!
Plastic is biologically problematic because of it's smallest components-- monomers. These tiny components are chained together into polymers. Simply put, Polymers = Plastic. Destructive processes such as chewing, grinding, aging, heating, and micro waving release monomers from the polymer chain. These small biologically active units are implicated as hormone disruptors, so why the heck put plastic into the wet warm toothy mouths of your pets!
Reusing plastic is less efficient than recycling aluminum, paper, or glass. To recycle plastic it must be heated and agitated, leading to a lower quality product. This "down cycling" of plastic uses lots of water and energy while producing toxic by products. Is "recycling" partially a marketing ploy used by the plastics industry to dampen our guilt so we will continue to consume their product?
Using recycled plastic in pet toys and fabrics is not new-- marketing it as "green" is. Compared to other products like organic cottons and wool, hemp, organic cotton batting, agave fibers, and kapok, plastic fleece fabrics are super cheap-- which is why they can be found everywhere. It would be great for our bottom line if we used "eco-fleece" in our toys. It would cut our material costs by 70% --easily. We just can't and won't do it.
Read more about plastic fabrics here-- lots of worthy info!
