Our EcoTeam was formed in 2022 and have already had a huge impact on helping us at Watkins + Tasker Vets become a greener veterinary practice. The team were pivotal in helping us achieve our Bronze iiE (Investors in the Environment) Award and introduced a robust recycling scheme within the practice. We can’t wait to see what else happens in the future!

As we have mentioned before, here at Watkins + Tasker Vets, we are part of Investors in the Environment which is set up to help businesses to become more sustainable. Our EcoTeam and are always helping us become more sustainable. The team have put their heads together to give you some top tips on how you can be more sustainable whilst caring for your pets!

1. Enrichment for our pets is so important whether you have a dog, cat, small furry or scaley friend, they all like to have toys that stimulate their minds and can have fun at the same time. Toys can be expensive and damaging to the environment so have you ever thought of making your own? It is good fun, a great way to use old household items, can help our pets thrive and it is kinder to the environment! If you want to give it a go, please have a look at some of the ideas below:

• T-Shirt rope toy – have an old pile of t-shirts that you no longer wear? Great! Turn them into a rope toy for your dog! Cut the t-shirt into strips, tie a sturdy knot one end, plait the strips of t-shirt, and tie a sturdy knot at the other the end.
• Cardboard fun house – be honest, how many times have you bought your cat expensive toys, but they are more interested in a cardboard box? Use those cardboard boxes to make a fun house for your feline friend. Cut some different sized and different shaped holes in the box, hide some treats inside and put some comfy bedding or an old item of clothing inside.
• Forage bridge – small furries love foraging for some treats. Use the cardboard section from toilet rolls to make a small bridge which you can fill with hay, treats, vegetables and whatever else your pet likes. Cut small holes in the toilet rolls so your small furry friend can go foraging for some delicious food.
• Sunbathing platform – most lizards absolutely love basking in the sun! Why not put together a little platform for them to enjoy the heat on? So many old household items would make a good platform: small boxes, wood, rocks from the garden plus much more.

2. Many companies are now creating cat litter from biodegradable products, often that are by-products of other industrial processes. Doubly good the environment. Some are even doing trial size bags to ensure your cat likes the litter before buying it in bulk.

Recycled paper and wood products form the base of most of these making them safe to be put in a home composter to avoid them reaching landfill.

You can expect all the usual features of clumping, odour eliminating and dust-free to be present in the biodegradable litters making them not too different from the type your cat likely already uses.

3. As a pet owner, you may well be a client of a pet insurance company. What are their environment and sustainability pledges? What have they done to achieve that?

There are some very commendable insurers who are now carbon positive which is fantastic. This means that they have, for example:

• Planted over 2200 trees.
• On the road to becoming paperless saving 2,000,000 sheets of paper which saves 31 tonnes of Co2. That is the same as 34 flights from Paris to New York.

As clients, it is worth looking at any potential insurers of your pets and seeing what they are doing to help reduce climate change. Small actions lead to big impacts.

4. The one thing we all have in our house is pet food. From dry food packaging to wet food sachets, many pet food companies are already changing to using recyclable packaging so it is worth checking to see if they are able to be placed into our household recycling.

For those that are not yet recyclable, there are still ways that we can hopefully recycle them using external companies and collection points which can be found by searching online to find your most local collection point. In case they are not already, you can always contact your pet food manufacturer and see if they are planning to make their packaging eco-friendly.

5. As we become more aware of the impact having pets can have on the environment, we will look to find alternative ways to give them the best while also helping the environment.

One of the ways in which we can spearhead a change in the industry is recycled pet beds. You can do this in one of two ways; online companies or stores that make beds out of recycled materials, all the hard work is done for you, just a payment away or getting creative and making your own at home.

Time to dive into the wardrobe for those items you no longer wear but cannot seem to get rid of, give them a new lease of life as a bed for your beloved pet. A simple internet search can be done to find helpful guides to making your own, from jumper dogs’ beds to t-shirts and old boxes creating the perfect hidey-hole for your cats.

6. Which is better: Compostable or Biodegradable?

Compostable products have undergone strict testing to ensure that they break down within a specific time frame and do not release anything harmful into the environment. Biodegradable products have no such requirements, meaning that they may not be as beneficial as they first appear. They are made from 100% plant-based material.

Compostable packaging products will:

• Break down within the time needed by the composting environment.
• Not release harmful residue as they decompose.
• Create healthy compost that to enrich the soil.

Compostable packaging must adhere to strict standards and has been rigorously tested. Packaging labelled only as biodegradable cannot be composted and must therefore be sent to a landfill.

What type of poo bags do you use for your dog? Did you know compostable ones take 180-360 days to dissolve, and a biodegradable version take 10-20 years.

At Watkins + Tasker Vets, we have switched to selling compostable bags only.