Pampered pets, profligate packaging

We all love our pets, and want to look after them. But do they appreciate the packaging of their food? Do they really want their food to come in individually-packaged single servings, or is this just clever marketing?

We visited some supermarkets to look at pet food packaging.

Look at the spoilt cat on this tin of cat food from Sainsbury's. 85g of cat food in its very own tin. What a waste!


This dog food at Tesco also comes in individual portions, this time in thick foil trays. We wonder how many of these are washed out and recycled? Call us sceptics, but we suspect that most of them end up as landfill. Why not buy a larger tin of dog food, and use it over several days?


Apparently normal cow's milk is no longer good enough for our cats. This Felix cat milk has reduced lactose for sensitive moggies. It also comes in its own small plastic bottle.


Whether essential nutrition or marketing ploy, we don't really mind if customers want to pay extra for their pet food. We do care about the packaging, though! Well-meaning pet owners transport all this packaging home, and discard it on a regular basis. Our pets won't notice, but our environment surely will.

TotallyWasted.org