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Policy & RecallsBy The PetRetailNews Desk3 min readJuly 31, 2026
USDA Biobased Cert Just Became Table Stakes for Waste Category
A brand just earned third-party verified USDA status across four waste products and published the exact percentages. Here's what that changes for buyers.
A brand just earned third-party verified USDA Certified Biobased Product status across four separate waste products, poop bags at 41% and 92% biobased content, training pads at 48%, and wipes at 100%, and published the exact percentages.
The pattern: certification is replacing marketing language
Pet N Pet, a Suwanee-based pet care brand, announced the certifications and made a point of naming the standard behind each one. The USDA Certified Biobased Product label comes from the BioPreferred Program, a federal initiative created under the 2002 Farm Bill and expanded under the 2018 Farm Bill. Products earn the label after third-party lab testing confirms the percentage of biobased content using a standardized carbon-dating method.
The company's founder said it plainly: "Pet owners want proof, not marketing language. Each certification we list comes from an independent standard, and customers can look up the exact percentage behind every product we sell."
That's not a product announcement. That's a positioning move. Pet N Pet is drawing a line between certified and uncertified, and publishing the numbers so the customer can check.
The company also holds membership in the Plant-Based Products Council and publishes the material composition behind each percentage. The 41% biobased poop bags are made with 41% plant-derived content and 59% polyethylene, are not marketed as biodegradable or compostable, and are intended for disposal with household trash. The USDA label verifies the percentage of renewable plant-derived carbon in a product, it is not a claim about environmental impact.
What the waste volume actually looks like
Pet waste bags are a small but persistent share of everyday plastic use. A study published in the journal Environmental Pollution estimated the worldwide total at more than 415 billion dog waste bags used each year, an amount equal to up to 1.23 million tons of plastic waste, according to Earth911's review of the research.
The EPA classifies pet waste itself as a nonpoint source of pollution but does not regulate pet waste bags.
That volume creates a customer who wants a verifiable answer to "what is this actually made of," and generic eco language no longer closes the question.
If you stock eco-waste products, you now have brands on your shelf with third-party verified percentages sitting next to brands with unverified claims at similar price points. The customer who cares about biobased content can now check the number, and the brand without certification just became the discount option whether you priced it that way or not.
Pet N Pet's four-product certification spread, two poop bag tiers, one training pad, one wipe, signals cross-category coverage. A buyer looking at waste management as a bundled decision now has a certified option in each format, and that changes the conversation with the rep from the uncertified line.
The certified products are available through petnpet.us and the company's wholesale channel for retail and distribution partners.
What proves this wrong
This pattern breaks if customers don't actually check certifications at purchase, or if the price gap between certified and uncertified products stays wide enough that certification becomes a luxury tier rather than table stakes.
It also breaks if other mid-tier brands in waste don't follow with their own certifications. If Pet N Pet is alone in this move, it's a niche play. If more brands announce similar certifications, the aisle splits into certified and uncertified, and you'll need to decide which side of that line your set sits on.
The thing to watch next
Whether your current waste suppliers announce certifications, or whether they stay quiet and start discounting to hold shelf space. The first tells you certification is becoming the baseline. The second tells you they're choosing to compete on price, and you need to know which game you're stocking for.
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