Tins or pouches of cat food

[BillieJ]

One of our cats has had a lot of dental problems and can no longer eat dried food. We buy a big box of 96 small tins because despite being hungry, he would not eat any cat food in larger tins. My daughter gave us some pouches of food her cat wouldn't eat, and he liked that.

I try to buy things packaged in paper, then cardboard and then tins/glass over plastic, but I wonder if I have that right. The tins are recycled - well, they go in our recycling bin whereas pouches go to landfill.

But what about the energy costs in manufacturing the tins vs pouches, and then the fact that a lorry of tins is about 50% packaging whereas a lorry of pouches would be a fraction of that?

Which should I be buying: tins or pouches?

whereas pouches go to landfill.

They can be recycled with the soft plastics. Tesco,Co op and other places have collection points.

I recycle everything, so I feel disproportionately annoyed that my cat won’t eat tinned food, but I can at least wash and recycle the pouches now.

I did not know this. I shop online, so wasn't aware that all of this was recyclable. Thank you - other people in the house go to Tesco every week or two, so this is something we can start right now.

Although some places recycle pouches they are a lot harder to process than tins because they consist of layers of different materials, whereas tins are just melted down and used again, so we use tins on that basis.

Yes, the recylability of tins has always made me think they're the best option. Now, because of the energy costs in manufacturing, and partiularly transportation, I'm not so sure.

A tin is infinitely recyclable.

I got a free tin (usually buy pouches) and was wondering the same this week. As it happens my cat didn’t like the tin but might try others.

Pouches say they can be recycled at large stores.