By David Alderton

The EU is set to ban fluorescent lights by the year 2016, potentially increasing costs for aquarists. (Cioli & Hunnicutt/bowtie studio)

Growing consumer awareness of environmental issues in Europe is forcing politicians and businesses to take action to address such concerns. These are centered largely on two areas—waste and energy use—and the effects are being felt across the pet trade as in other business sectors. Unfortunately, in the desire to be seen as green in the here and now, the longer-term consequences are often not adequately considered.

There is a big drive within the supermarket industry to address the amount of unsold, outdated food being discarded. Major U.K. supermarket chain Sainsbury’s recently announced a novel plan to deal with this problem in its stores in Northern Ireland. Instead of sending such food to landfills, it will now have the past-expiration-date food collected and transported to the Republic of Ireland’s Food Surplus Management plant.

This initiative should reduce the amount of waste going to landfills by approximately 1,322 (U.S.) tons. Instead, this waste food will now be converted into animal feed, including pet food.

Lawrence Christensen, head of Sainsbury’s Environmental Action Team hailed this development as a major advance.
“This is the first step in our mission to end our use of landfill sites and to ensure Sainsbury’s remains the most environmentally responsible retailer in the U.K.,” he said.

Not everyone on the commercial side of the business may share his enthusiasm, however, as this development brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “junk food.” Will recycled pet food really be something that attracts customers? Is this the image speciality pet-food manufacturers would expect pet owners to buy into?

The pet-food industry has struggled for years to convince consumers they are buying a quality product that is the result of intensive research into the nutritional needs of dogs. Suddenly, however, this message is now in danger of being weakened because of this development. It will most likely give a boost to specialist and niche pet-food manufacturers that openly declare their quality ingredients.

Food scares, such as those generated by BSE (mad-cow disease) in the U.K. and melamine contamination in imported products in the U.S., have made pet owners warier about purchasing prepared foods.

Rather bizarrely, this concern is reflected by growth in the premium sector, as pet owners reacted to this uncertainty by purchasing what they perceive by price to be the best-quality product. Dog and cat owners will more than likely be turned off by Sainsbury’s concept of reusing out-of-date food in this way, thus damaging the pet industry as a whole.

Politicians, too, are just as keen to take action on green issues, often without fully appreciating their actions’ costs, since the effects of hastily concluded legislation can be counterproductive. There are growing fears surrounding the EU-dictated ban on tungsten-filament light bulbs (Canada and Australia have also banned them). These traditional bulbs are widely used for a variety of purposes by pet owners, particularly in bird rooms and in herp keeping.

The EU ban begins this year and will be in full force by 2012—the tungsten bulbs will be replaced by energy-efficient lights. These new alternatives are heat-free, take time to reach full intensity, and generally cannot be used with existing dimmer switches. More seriously, however, some studies suggest that spending too much time in close proximity to the new lights results in higher exposure to radiation than is advisable under international guidelines. This could be harmful to pets.

Then there is the issue of breakage and disposal. The bulbs’ mercury content is hazardous, and they cannot be disposed of in the garbage. The worst thing of all, perhaps, is that tests have shown some new bulbs may actually use more energy than the existing tungsten equivalents, which was the reason for making this change in the first place.

The EU is not stopping there, either. By 2016, fluorescent lights, which are also used widely in aquariums and terrariums will be banned as well. The replacement in this case will be LEDs, although as to whether they will offer the same range of applications remains unclear at present, according to those in the pet industry, but in all likelihood, they will be more costly. <HOME>

David Alderton is a freelance writer in the United Kingdom.