Sustainable living is going to the dogs.
At least it should, says Kara Wardinger, who hopes her Pawty Animals business model will be adopted by other businesses.
Pawty Animals recently won the Barrie Business Sustainable Impact Award. The Barrie-based business makes and distributes environmentally friendly plush animals for dogs.
Pawson Canadian, Toronto Woofjays, Tim Pawtons and Potty Jane are among the collection of dog toys whose names riff off classic Canadian icons and sports team, all fashioned from recycled water bottles.
“I’m a really big animal lover and environmentalist,” says Wardinger, whose background is in digital/technical project management. “I grew up saving animals at a really young age.”
Wardinger has always been surrounded by animals and currently has two dogs and two rabbits. She loves indulging in pets toys, as do so many other pet owners, reflective in the massive pet-toy market.
But they often didn’t last long in the jaws of three-legged Indy and Momo, a husky.
When Wardinger looked into it, she says she was overwhelmed with how much was ending up in the garbage.
It’s been estimated that 635 million dog toys, something in the area of 41,000 tons, are discarded in landfills worldwide every year, with that number on the increase.
As a self-identified environmentalist, Wardinger decided to make better shopping decisions on behalf of her pets and set out in search of sustainable dog toys.
“There was literally no sustainable alternative available … which was really important to me,” she says. “There was a really big gap in the industry ... and a really big need for it.”
She also knew that it’s a vast market. The plush toy industry is No. 1 in the pet space.
So she decided to fill the market gap herself and launched Pawty Animals in 2022. She set out to create an all-local company, but could find no manufacturers in Canada that create toys from recycled material.
They all used the virgin polyester process. She found the prices prohibitive in the United States and ended up using a Chinese company. Among her goals is to one day have her own manufacturing facility.
She operates the business from her home and employs the designer, developer and bookkeeper on contract.
Her product line of nine plush toys is available through 155 independent retailers across Canada and she has recently secured a partnership with PetSmart, an American-based chain of pet superstores. They sell for $14.99 with a current monthly sales volume of about 2,500 to 3,000 toys.
The challenge, Wardinger has found, from making products from underutilized water bottles or recycled material is that it’s more expensive and difficult to source, especially if it’s certified.
And while her products are not indestructible, they do better withstand handling by dogs.
“As a small business I am really, really hoping to set a new standard in the pet-care industry and show that small businesses can make a really big impact,” she says.
“I really want other businesses to see what I’m doing as a small business … to adopt these sustainable practices that I have to make the planet better overall,” Wardinger says of her overall goal of the business, which is celebrating its second anniversary. “It’s really just growing the mission.”
To further the sustainability initiatives, she also provides a “reposit program” service on the side to repair and clean old dog toys. When they’re repaired, they’re re-homed to rescue dogs and are saved from going to the landfill.
“It’s one of my favourite aspects of Pawty Animals,” she says.
