Published Percentages Are Replacing Sustainability Language in Waste

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 label originates from the BioPreferred Program, which Congress created in the 2002 Farm Bill and reauthorized in 2018. Third party labs test products and confirm biobased content percentages through standardized carbon dating methods before the USDA grants certification, according to the program.

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 belongs to the Plant-Based Products Council and publishes the material composition behind each percentage. The 41% biobased poop bags contain 41% plant content and 59% polyethylene, carry no biodegradable or compostable claims, and go into household trash like conventional bags. The federal label confirms how much renewable plant carbon a product contains but makes no statement about environmental outcomes.

What the waste volume actually looks like

Dog waste bags represent a modest but steady portion of global plastic consumption. Research in the journal Environmental Pollution calculated annual worldwide use at over 415 billion bags, which translates to as much as 1.23 million tons of plastic waste per year, Earth911 reported when reviewing the study.

The EPA treats pet waste itself as a nonpoint pollution source but has no regulatory framework for the bags used to collect it.

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 your week runs on calls like this one, subscribe to PetRetailNews.

The squeeze on uncertified brands

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.

← Back to the Newsdesk