Sustainability isn’t going anywhere. If anything, it’s becoming more prevalent in every part of the pet food production cycle, from ingredients to processing to packaging. As such, it behooves us to figure out what’s going right in the pet food space when it comes to sustainability while acknowledging how far we still have to go. In our LinkedIn poll question posed in January 2025 (p. xx), 51.3% of respondents indicated that they believe the pet food space is “behind the trend” when it comes to sustainability. So, what is the current reality, and where can the industry do better?
The industry’s greatest strengths: Flexibility, leverage and consistency
The breadth and depth of the pet food industry might just be its greatest benefit when it comes to successful sustainability planning.
“As more of the world sees their pets as family members, they are likely going to want to shift diets toward new benefits and trends,” said CEO Doug Barton and Brand Experience Strategist Hunter Ellis, both of ecommerce digital marketing agency Trone. “We aren’t stuck in a world where there are relatively few pet food and treat options and have not been for a long time. Food can be made to take advantage of sustainability trends around packaging (e.g., more eco-friendly cardboard or glass) and ingredients (e.g., black fly larvae or Marine Stewardship Council Certified seafood) that require far less carbon for production than red meats.”
Speaking of proteins, pet food is able to pick up the slack human food’s demands leave behind.
“Our greatest strength is the ability to leverage numerous protein co-products from human food processing,” said Dr. Ryan Ordway, director of technical services – international ruminant & global monogastrics for health and nutrition solutions company Balchem. “While many co-products are not readily part of North American western diets, these materials are safe, nutrient rich and highly bioavailable. Many of these products are more cost-effective than lean muscle protein currently used in many formulae. Developing processes and technologies that allow us to easily convert these protein sources into appealing nutrition products is a tremendous opportunity for the global pet industry.”
Of course, on the packaging side the sustainability work has been going on for longer than perhaps any other segment.
“[Everyone is] looking at some sustainable option, whether it be recycled content, some portion of PCR (post-consumer recycled) or recycle-ready,” said Brian Steinwagner, executive vice president of business development for Morris Packaging. “Everybody seems to have that same desire and want to go down that path, where in the past we probably haven’t seen that. So I think that’s what’s right: Everybody’s mission and goal is to have some form of sustainable options.”
Sustainability challenges: Consumer education and cost
One of the most prevalent issues with sustainability in the pet food arena has been figuring out what pet owners actually want (and are willing to put their money behind) when it comes to the idea.
“The negative side of the pet humanization trend and explosive growth in the pet food category is that it can feel like pet parents are constantly being hit with ‘shiny object syndrome’ when it comes to the need to innovate and market new ingredients and flavors on the manufacturer side,” said Barton and Ellis. “This can run counter to sustainability, which is about reducing food waste and creating lasting behaviors and habits. We believe that marketing will soon shift more toward promoting sustainability efforts alongside ingredients and benefits, but that this will take more time.”
Not just time, but education. One of the most obvious ways to be sustainable is to use byproducts in pet food — but, as the industry well knows, “byproducts” have taken a significant marketing hit in the eyes of consumers, who easily transpose their human needs onto their pets’ nutrition.
“From an overall nutrition platform, pet nutrition is an incredibly sustainable industry,” said Ordway. “Reports indicate that only about 40–50% of material from human food processing (beef, poultry, swine and aquaculture) are acceptable by U.S. citizens for their consumption. However, the pet food industry has processes in place to recapture the nutritive value of potentially discarded protein co-products. Reducing the reliance on expensive cuts of protein for pet foods will provide greater amounts of material for the ever-growing human food market. Therefore, we must 1) develop new technologies that allow for continuous upcycling of protein co-products, and 2) educate pet parents about the incredible nutritional benefits of protein co-products for their pets.”
Packaging has grappled with several challenges since the eye of sustainability fell upon the segment, not the least of which is that sustainable technologies cost money.
“I think the bigger aspect right now, from a materials standpoint, has been the cost associated with moving to a sustainable structure,” said Steinwagner. “And over the last couple of years, those price metrics have come down, which I think has now opened up the idea of more people taking a look at it, because it isn’t as severe of price increase as it was. Everything was well in the double digits — now it’s not like that. For us internally, we can do recycled content at no charge, no cost increase, and we’re trying to keep our recycle-ready packaging within that 5–6% cost increase, where two years ago it was easily 15–20%.”
Sustainability in 2025
So, what’s sustainability going to look like in 2025?
“I believe more companies will be articulating and communicating their organizational efforts to support long-term sustainability goals,” said Ordway. “[Additionally], human nutrition trends definitely influence pet parents’ opinions on potential nutritional needs. So if a certain nutrient is being advertised for helping or increasing the overall health of the owner, they will readily inquire if the same benefit is needed for their furry family member. Therefore, our global pet nutrition industry has a continued role to help properly educate pet owners about safe pet nutrition and continue to conduct the necessary clinical trials that define the nutritional truths for our pets.”
Technology also has its continued role to play.
“Developing and leveraging new emerging technologies to ensure efficient processing and product safety [will also be a focus in 2025],” said Ordway. “Product recalls can be a huge impact to sustainability efforts, therefore understanding alternative processes and taking full advantage of emerging technologies to ensure product safety for pets and family members will be a huge focal area.”
And of course, packaging will continue to evolve.
“Look for pet food packaging to get a big priority push in 2025 partly due to rising fuel costs (and possible tariffs) making product weights more important than ever,” said Barton and Ellis. “International pet brands may want to identify materials and possibly bulk product sizing to help break even in the face of unknown logistical challenges. As more online retail-native pet food and treat brands find less need for traditional box store packaging investment, expect less designed, eco-friendly packaging to become a selling point among brands less concerned with eye-catching ‘shelf presence.’”