Recycling to help animals!

People who actively collaborate in the rescue and care of abandoned or mistreated pets use lots of methods to help out with animal welfare organizations’ expenses. Some of these animal lovers combine this objective with another important goal: caring for the environment by recycling caps or plastic bottles.

An ecological way to help abandoned pets

One of these initiatives is being developed in several Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia. The initiative’s mission is simple. People are asked to collect plastic caps from soda bottles or water. Then they take the plastic caps to certain drop-off places. For example:

• Businesses with diversified industrial activities
• Public organizations
• Educational establishments
• Some private companies and foundations

People collect the money from selling these materials to recycling companies, and then donate it to animal shelters.

This type of project also thrives in Spain, although it is more common to carry out specific campaigns aimed at collaborating with people who need to pay for medical treatment.

A good way to combine helping abandoned animals and with caring for the planet is to collect plastic materials, sell them to recycling companies and donate the money to animal shelters.

Helping animals with plastic bottle caps

At this point, you might wonder why the initiative focuses on recycling bottle caps. This is because bottle caps are easy to gather and transport, since they don’t take up much space. Bottle caps also are made of better quality polymers than plastic bottles.

Plastic bottle caps convert easily into various plastic objects. For example:

• Buckets
• Wastebaskets
• Toys
• Chairs

A recycled bottle that dispenses food to street animals

Another initiative in Turkey, which provides food and fresh water dispensers for stray animals, also links recycling with animal support.

These machines are located in public places, especially in squares and parks in Istanbul. Recycled plastic bottles dispense food portions that feed Istanbul’s many abandoned cats and dogs.

These devices powered by solar cells and are ecologically-friendly. Importantly, the money collected from recycling is then used to buy food for stray animals.

Although these food dispensers are good at meeting the immediate needs of homeless domestic animals — and use recycled materials at the same time — this option does not solve all the problems with stray animals. The animals are still homeless and exposed to all sorts of outdoor dangers.

Contribute your recycling ideas to help animals and take care of the planet

In any case, there are always different and interesting possibilities for how to help abandoned dogs and cats. And if you incorporate ideas on how to make the planet less polluted, so much the better.

Feel free to mimic some of these initiatives and promote them in your neighborhood or community. It’s easy to use social media to get the word out about a project.

We’ll leave you with a link (in Spanish) from the Argentine foundation Tapitas x Patitas where they explain what their mission is and how their foundation is organized. We hope this inspires you to take action to help out animals and the environment!

If you think of any other idea that helps animals while also taking care of the environment, don’t hesitate to put it into practice. Your friends, family and neighbors would likely be happy to help you achieve your goals. The abandoned animals and the polluted planet will eventually thank you in some way, so do not take it for granted.

Photo source: Facebook of Tapitas X Patitas