Unlike what early 90s band Aqua led us to believe, life in plastic is, in fact, not fantastic. The soft plastic recycling industry falling over has been a big wakeup call for us businesses to really think about the materials we use. Especially our bags. Even the recyclable ones are not infinitely recyclable. They use a lot of fossil fuels in their production too. That’s why we’re stoked to welcome a brand new plant-based bag for our kibble. It isn’t edible (sorry plant-based folk). But it is completely carbon neutral, uses fewer fossil fuels as it’s being made and generates less greenhouse gas when you chuck it out.
How did we get here?
For those of you who remain blissfully unaware of the situation in Australia. It ain’t pretty. Some would call it a crisis (us). Very few councils offer to recycle soft plastics, so most people were relying on private drop off points. Then in late 2022, the major recycling plant for soft plastics RedCycle folded like, well, a plastic bag. There was way too much soft plastic to process and not enough end use. And after being caught with warehouses full, they chose to close operations. All of us using recyclable plastic bags to ship our products were left high and dry. So LDPE-based plastics (like our bags) were basically bound for the bin.
“We had to change tack. From worrying about recyclability at the end of our bag’s life. To reducing the impact of creating it in the first place.”
There was a lot to consider. What kind of carbon footprint would the manufacturing process have? Where did the materials come from? Are they renewable? Recycled? Virgin? Are they harmful? And what will happen to our bag when it’s no longer usable? Most importantly, it needed to meet our high standards of food safety and storage. Strong enough to happily hold 4kg of dog food. Resistant enough to prevent any moisture (or sneaky pups) from getting in over time.
We knew we could do better – and we have
We’re pretty chuffed with our choice. It’s made from up to 50% plants (specifically sugar cane). They call it Sugarflex™. And it’s got plenty to flex about. The material is carbon neutral, thanks to that renewable plant-based content and special production techniques. The process to create it uses 70% less fossil fuels than the bags you’ll find on the usual store shelves too. Take that big dog food. And unlike a lot of compostable options that absorb and degrade when there’s food inside, it is great for oily and even wet products.
It is *technically* recyclable. If your council supports LDPE recycling (Onya City of Yarra). Or if you can drop it off at another soft plastics collection point. But with RedCycle no longer existing, that’s pretty tough. So you’ll see on the bag we’ve said to put it in the bin. The good news is: when Sugarflex™ ends up in landfills it breaks down into biogenic carbon instead of generating any greenhouse gas emissions.
That’s what we call
the good kind
of dirt bag.
We’ll use this new option to bag up an exciting new recipe (more on that coming soon!). Before rolling it out to all our other kibbles later in the year. In the far far future, we may return to something recyclable. Councils are increasingly offering LDPE #4 recycling. But we reckon it’ll take at least 5 years for uptake to get to the place where we could confidently recommend it. As always, we’ll keep our (floppy) ears to the ground to make sure we’re making the best decision for you guys. And the planet.
We’ll holler if anything changes.
Cheers,
Mike, Doug & The Scratch Team
