Purr & Miaow launches Purr-cycle in partnership with Enval

Purr & Miaow and Enval announced today that Purr & Miaow have joined the “Laminates League”, the innovative recycling scheme aiming for zero waste to landfill from Purr & Miaow cat food pouches.

We use enough single-use pouches to cover the surface of the UK twice over every single day. Every year 10 billion pouches made of aluminium and plastic are sold in the pet food, baby food and drinks sectors, with a shocking rate of only 20,000 of these currently recycled. The recycling rate of pouches is 50 times worse than that of the single-use coffee cups that have lately received so much media attention. With a typical cat food owner using 1,000 pouches a year and 1.1 million cats in the UK, the scale of the issue is staggering.

On a mission to tackle this, one of the biggest environmental issues that pet owners face, Purr & Miaow launched Purr-cycle and by doing so is the first pet-food company to join the Laminates League. Purr-Cycle will operate on a not-for-profit basis, so no more pouches need go to landfill.

Pooch & Mutt founder Guy Blaskey launched the company’s sister brand Purr & Miaow on a mission to help the nation’s cats lead happier, healthier lives, but faced environmental concerns over the disposal of pet food pouches. “From our research, we know that cat owners love feeding cat pouches more than any other format, but we know that they want to have the option to recycle them. For dogs, we launched in Tetra Pak which is a more environmentally-friendly option than a can or plastic tray. However, as of yet, there aren’t widely adopted schemes for the recycling of pouches. We couldn’t in good conscience launch pouches without partnering with someone capable of recycling them” says Blaskey.

Many “Big Pet Food” brands mislead their consumers by placing a circular arrow on their packaging. This means that the producer has made a financial contribution towards recovering and recycling packaging in Europe but does not mean that the product is recycled.

It is a simple process to recycle with Purr-cycle. You can order 10 recycling bags from Purr-cycle for £9.99 by visiting www.purrandmiaow.com and will receive 10 prepaid envelopes to post pouches back directly to Enval; allowing you to recycle up to 250 pouches (only 4p per pouch). Enval, using its unique recycling solution, will separate the aluminium foil and the plastic in the pouches.

The price of £9.99 only covers the postage cost to customers, 10 Freepost envelopes back and the recycling. “We’ll make no profits on Purr-cycle” says Blaskey. “We know that people will be willing to pay for the bags, as we know that consumers are more environmentally conscious than ever before. Sales of reusable coffee cups have soared throughout the UK in recent years because people are willing to spend more if it means they can contribute to helping the environment. It’s time to stop wasting enough pouches to cover the UK two times a day and start recycling today with Purr-cycle – no profits and no waste.”

Carlos Ludlow-Palafox, Enval CEO, said: We’re delighted to welcome Purr & Miaow as the newest member of the Laminates League. We receive increasing numbers of enquiries from cat owners asking if there is a way for them to recycle the pouches that they use and we look forward to being able to reply that now there is, and that by buying products from Purr & Miaow they will be supporting a brand that really puts environmental concerns at the top of their priorities. Our aim with the Laminates League is to show local authorities, waste handling companies and material reprocessors that our technology is a reality and should be an essential part of their recycling plans. Creating integrated recycling solutions for materials that used to be trickier to deal with is what Enval is all about and we are delighted to be working with Purr & Miaow and Little Freddie, the organic baby food company, on this. These brands are offering customers a real circular economy recycling scheme for their post-consumer packaging. We hope to see many more brands follow suit.”