If you’ve ever dumped a plastic bottle in the recycling bin, you may wonder where that ends up. Well it may just end up keeping your dog comfortable as they dream about long walks and Snausages. That’s right, recycled plastic bottles are now being used to make pet beds of all shapes and sizes.
Now you may be saying to yourself, “a plastic bottle doesn’t seem real comfortable”. But in fact, it can be made to be. Pet bed manufacturer Bowsers has found a revolutionary way to construct polyester fibers from recycled plastic (PET) soda bottles. The bottles are first refined and purified before being chopped down into tiny flakes where they are processed into spun fiber strands. The strands are then knitted and woven together to create their “Eco-Tech” fabric.
Dubbed their Eco+ line, these pet beds meet all the requirements of a top of the line bed. They are soft, yet firm, and provide an unsurpassed night’s sleep for your dog. They perform just like non-recycled fabrics and you won’t be able to tell the difference. The Eco-Tech fleece also stays warm, is durable, retains color, and is machine washable.
Every year, billions of pounds of plastic bottles enter landfills throughout the United States. Not only do they take hundreds of years to begin to decay, but they use up countless resources and even potentially leak toxic additive into our groundwater. In a nutshell, not a lot of good comes from having a ton of plastic bottles taking up space in a landfill.
Depending on the size of the bed, you can help divert 20-30 plastic bottles from ever reaching a landfill. So besides keeping our landfills a little lighter, you also ensure that virgin materials are not being used in the fiber manufacturing process. Recycled fibers also use less petroleum and other natural resources. Which means you’ll also be helping keep harmful emissions out of the air which can cause acid rain and smog.
Currently there are four eco-friendly dog beds from Bowsers. Many come in various colors and sizes. You have the Eco+ Tahoe, Orbit Bolster, Futon, or one I’m sure Woody Harrelson would be proud of, the Hemp dog bed. All are competitively priced with their non-recycled counterparts and just as durable.
While there isn’t a huge selection of recycled dog beds on the market these days, it is a trend that we feel is only going to get more popular. There is of course caution with many consumers when it comes to the quality of recycled materials, but as technology has advanced, these materials are as strong, if not stronger than those made with virgin materials. In fact, you may be lounging on the couch right now with a fleece blanket made from plastic bottles and not even know it.
So if nothing here tickles your fancy, at least you’ll be armed with the knowledge that you can make a comfortable bed out of those old Diet Pepsi bottles you drank out of this afternoon. And with some luck, and consumer pressure, we can see all manufacturers using these technologies to make our planet a little cleaner.
