Reduce, Reuse, Recycle- Doggie Style
Our dog Rosey is pretty new to the family. She’s a three year old lab mix that joined the family from Ruff Start Rescue this fall, and she is fitting right in. Rosey is the kind of gal that happily does whatever her people are doing, whether snuggling on the couch, taking a stroll through the neighborhood, or putting the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) of waste reduction into practice.
Rosey excels at reuse, perhaps in part because she’s a reused dog? She is furry proof positive that love is a durable and worthy investment.
Our girl eschews commercial dog toys in favor of gallon milk jugs (we like to use words like gritty and authentic to describe her). They provide a nice chewing texture, fun scrunchy sound, and fit nicely in her mouth. She’s a pro at biting/spitting out, crushing and chasing, and especially loves when little ice chunks or even treats find their way inside. She can play with an empty milk jug for a week or more before it is destroyed to the point of being potentially risky. The best part? It’s now 100% recyclable, and she can even put it in the bin herself.
This is adorable dog Tubby recycles too. Rosey herself isn’t into the photographs so much, enjoy these web-based surrogates.
Good ol’ Pinterest also shows us lots of pet-themed projects with those same jugs – this one seems like something we could actually get behind.
Another key toy is the braided-denim tug, an item that perfectly reduces the following:
- Salvaged denim in my basement
- Guilt I feel from said denim languishing
- Chances of actually creating rag rug in future
- Landfill space, if that denim was to get thrown away rather than donated.
All good things.
This fuzzy peddler features tugs in an online store.
It turns out a dog is a great way to reduce some of the intangibles, too: reduce stress with nice long play-n-pet sessions, reduce cabin fever with dog-themed adventures, reduce open spaces on soft surfaces next to warm people…
Our pup just makes everything better, even waste reduction blog-writing.
by Sarah Lerohl,
Environmental Program Coordinator