pamperedpuppy // luxury lifestyles for dogs

Doggone Green

Chomp. Chomp. Wag. Wag. That's the sight and sound of a happy Labrador working on his new Tux chew toy from West Paw Design. While the lab is happy that the toy feels good in his mouth and floats in his favorite swimming hole, the owner has a different reason to smile. At West Paw, they try to keep things as green as possible.

To tell the story of West Paw (www.westpawdesign.com), it makes sense to picture where the company is headquartered - pristine Bozeman, Montana. With the Rocky Mountains at their doorstep, it figures that these folks want to preserve the gorgeous natural surroundings they enjoy on a daily basis.

The small manufacturer aims to produce high-quality toys and pet accessories while minimally impacting the environment. How do they do it? First, they keep a close eye on things. There's no outsourcing to China or the Philippines. West Paw makes all their products in the Bozeman facility. By maintaining only one factory, West Paw boasts they can achieve faster shipping and higher quality.

Going green didn't happen overnight. In fact, there's still plenty of room for new eco-minded innovation. But West Paw has made significant strides to protect the environment for their tree-loving customers - dogs.

The man behind the mission is Spencer Williams. About a decade ago, Williams purchased the company (then called Petpals) and infused the brand with his eco-vision. Under Williams's leadership, the company sourced the best non-toxic materials they could find. As an environmentally conscious company they were interested into expanding with a line of Eco Toys.

Ryan Buck (from West Paw's marketing department) says that the first order of business with this new line was to find durable materials. Williams and his team wanted to design their toys to last. But there was a catch. The designers also wanted to use a majority of recycled materials in the manufacturing process.

That's where Intelliloft comes in: a fabric made from recycled plastic bottles. Intelliloft is used in the Eco Line of plush toys, beds and napping pads. Buck says the company sources their fabric in the USA from a small family-owned mill. Each soft toy is made of 85% recycled fibers. These fibers are derived from US-origin recycled plastic bottles. Our pets are now enjoying our old Poland Spring water bottles and Shout! stain remover bottles. Production like this would impress even Al Gore.

Waste not, want not. That's the way things work at West Paw. And it pays to keep manufacturing under one roof. The scraps of fabric and filler from the large dog beds (Eco Slumber) are ingeniously reused to make the small plush toys. It's an efficient and cost-effective process.

While the soft line of eco toys may best suited to gentler breeds (our tester, a German Shepherd mix, ripped his Eco Bone ($9.50) open to expose the squeaker in less than 10 minutes) - the fabric is light and indeed lofty. Dogs simply love the texture and feel (maybe it was too irresistible?). In additional to the squeaky bone the other toy shapes are inspired by nature: frog, salamander, fish, and turtle.

Rough, tough, energetic dogs are better off being steered towards the Zogoflex toys. These toys are made of a pliable plastic material that dogs just love to sink their teeth into (don't worry nothing came apart during our testing).

Fans of fetch will become addicted to the four Zogoflex offerings: Huck (a sphere), Hurley (stick shape), Tux (looks like a molecule diagram with a hole cut out to hide a treat) and Zisc (Frisbee). These toys come in bold bright tangerine, granny smith (green) and aqua blue and range in price from $8.50 to $14.50.

Shadow, our tester, is an infamous toy mauler. In fact, he's damaged his teeth and gums from tearing apart tennis balls and rubber toys. Shadow took an instant liking to his new Zogoflex Hurley. Shadow's owner was thrilled to find a toy that is both hard to destroy and floats - a rarity for toys made for large breeds.

Zogoflex was another West Paw innovation. Buck says this time around the designers wanted a durable plastic that had a rubbery feel. As Buck tells it, plastic manufacturing is often associated with large amounts of waste. West Paw changed all that with 100% recyclable Zogoflex. "There is next to zero waste in the process of creating a Zogoflex toy," says Buck.

With the advent of this new material, most would have assumed Chinese production would become involved (China is a leading manufacturer of injection-molded toys). Instead, Williams bought an injection molding press and continues to manufacture all the West Paw designs in Montana. This move allows factory seconds (toys that don't make the cut) and scraps to be melted into new Zogoflex toys.

According to Buck, the consumer response to the eco-line has been tremendous. Shadow's owner isn't alone in singing the brand's praises. West Paw has a virtual fan club on their Website. Happy pet owners are encouraged to snap photos of pets and playthings and send them in. What about unhappy owners? They can send in their toy for a refund or replacement.

While West Paw will keep making traditional tug and squeak toys, the environmentally friendly products keep expanding. Dog owners can feel good that their purchases from the Eco Line have helped keep 25 tons of plastic bottles from clogging up the landfills. As the owner, Spencer Williams, puts it, "We believe in our responsibility to the next generation, whether four-legged or two!"