One Australian company has found a creative way to turn its industrial waste into popular pet products.
Decor Systems manufactures acoustic panels to help sound travel in indoor spaces. That requires a lot of wood — but instead of throwing away excess timber, the company donates the offcuts for refashioning into pet products such as cat scratching posts and bird nesting boxes, according to Architecture and Design.
Decor Systems has partnered with CPS, a company whose founder is particularly passionate about providing homes for Australia's native budgies. CPS turns odd-sized wood panels into simple but cozy nesting boxes. It manufactures a few thousand boxes a week and sends them to homes, pet stores, and wildlife organizations.
That's good news for consumers of both Decor Systems and CPS, who can rest assured that no wood is going to waste. It's also good for the environment, as it keeps timber out of methane-producing landfills (explained here by the Environmental Protection Agency) while providing sustainable homes for breeding birds.
The partnership is just one of many creative ways that companies have devised to put their waste to work. One company turns discarded shrimp shells into textiles. Another creates plastic food trays from materials that would otherwise be thrown away.
The more ways that companies can reuse existing materials, the better, according to CPS's founder.
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"There's always a company that can use another company's waste," he said, per Architecture and Design. "Even platforms like Facebook Marketplace could connect people if more manufacturers were willing to list their offcuts for free."
The small wood pieces that CPS doesn't use for pet products get a second chance at life as materials for schools' arts and crafts projects.
"I get great satisfaction knowing we're helping animals — both native and domestic — have a safe place to breed or find refuge," CPS's founder said. "And seeing kids turn scraps into art? How good is that!"
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