How can I reuse or recycle plastic cat biscuit bags (like Purina)?

Shar left us a message on our “Suggest An Item” page:

I have increasing numbers of empty Purina one cat food bags.

Because they are plastic foil they are not accepted by my local council for recycling. [I’m in uk]

Bag has a zip lock. Sturdy item. Not sure what to do with them. I would gladly donate them to somewhere if I knew a place that re-used them.
size: 23 cm width / 27 cm height. Folds flat. At present these add to landfill. {cringes}

Any ideas how to recycle / re-use? [I do not have a garden or balcony, so no independent outdoor space]

We’ve asked about plastic pet food bags before but it seemed to be slanted towards big dog food bags – the size that can be used as grow bags or sealed rubbish/garbage bags. So any ideas for these smaller ones?

The zip lock element is interesting – making them easily water resistant if not full-on waterproof. I was reading the other day about the importance of having copies of all important paperwork (personal identification, bank details, insurance stuff) grouped together in a sealed easy-to-grab folder in case of an emergency – but someone else on the forum pointed out that such a file would be an identity thief’s dream — putting it in something like a couple of Purina bags would make it a lot less obvious. That would only use up one or two though – so any other suggestions?

(I’ve contacted Purina to see if they have any recycling advice: if they reply, I’ll add the info here.)

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4 Responses to “How can I reuse or recycle plastic cat biscuit bags (like Purina)?”


  1. Melinda says:

    How similar are these bags to foil coffee bags? If they are somewhat similar, perhaps the suggestions there can apply. I’m thinking of the wallets I recently made from coffee bags.

    I like the watterproof aspect of these. Could they not be used for smaller planters in container gardening?

  2. anna says:

    Actually, they are similar to what I’ve seen for some small bag container gardening things, for growing basil and other herbs. So if you have some soil and catnip seeds, what would be a better place to grow some catnip? :)
    In UK and Ireland finding catnip seeds took time for me, in the end I found some in the mini book section at Waterstone’s.

  3. SMW3 says:

    You might consider asking Terracycle if they could use large numbers of these bags. They recycle snack size chip, cookie, health bar, and other bags. I would think that animal lovers would buy items made of upcycled petfood bags.



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