Many pet food packages destined for recycling or return-to-store end up in landfills, even those marked “recyclable or return-to-store.” Recycling may be familiar and popular, yet flexible materials used for recyclable pet food bags often aren’t collected through curbside pickup services. Nina Wang, marketing specialist of the Layfield Group stated at Petfood Forum 2022. Although pet food bags can technically be recycled, only a fraction actually makes its way back into resource streams according to Nina. Therefore, for pet owners seeking easy solutions simply throw their bag away. Layfield has long employed its BioFlex material to craft pet food packages that biodegrade into fuel for power generation, making it acceptable to dispose of their bags – an approach known as least resistance which means finding ways to make it acceptable. Annamaet bags made out of this biogas landfill technology can even be thrown away with regular garbage without fear.
“What I love about it is its convenience; no need for cleaning and sorting,” Wang noted. “It fits right into consumer behavior – they throw their trash out anyway.”
Fossil fuels like natural gas have long been thought of as fossils; their energy has been trapped inside dead organisms over millions of years. Biogas provides renewable alternative energy from sustainable pet food packaging. Biodegradable waste produced today may bypass centuries and directly feed energy production through landfill gas recovery systems, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Biogas is produced through the decomposition of biomass in landfills, including everything from lawn clippings and scraps to roadkilled animals like raccoons. At specially constructed landfills, gas from decomposing organic matter can be collected and burned much like natural gas from underground deposits. Biogas contains both methane and carbon dioxide – both greenhouse gases if released into the atmosphere – but when stored inside these landfills burners can use that biogas to heat boilers that spin turbines to generate electricity.
Wang noted that landfill biogas powers 1,000 homes in Kansas City where Petfood Forum took place. If pet owners in this region discard an Annamaet bag as waste, that bag could wind up becoming someone else’s electricity source.
Annamaet informs their customers they use Layfield’s BioFlex material for pet food bags.
Wang noted, “They use it as an excellent marketing strategy,” noting their company and brand as good environmental stewards. Wang further elaborated, noting how BioFlex makes use of this marketing opportunity: on their website, their bags, literature and through advertising. They see this opportunity to promote themselves as great environmental stewards.”