Eco / plastic-free
Are Dog Toys Biodegradable? A Buyer's Checklist
Most dog toys are not biodegradable, even when marketed with earthy colours and natural-sounding names. Here's a practical checklist before you make (or trust) that claim.
Check the full material list, not just the headline
A "rope toy" might be listed as cotton, but woven around a plastic core, or finished with synthetic dye. A "wood chew" might be real wood glued to a synthetic handle. Ask for composition by weight and by component, not a single material name.
Common non-biodegradable components hiding in "natural" toys
- Plastic squeakers inside stuffed or rope toys
- Nylon-blend rope marketed as "natural fibre rope"
- Synthetic stitching or reinforcement thread
- Plastic-laminated tags or labels attached to the toy itself
Materials that pass the test
Coffee wood, coconut fiber, hemp fiber and loofah — used without synthetic reinforcement — are fully biodegradable. That's the entire premise behind our range; see our materials page for how each is sourced.
A simple question to ask any supplier
"If I buried this in soil, what would still be there in five years?" A defensible biodegradable claim should have a short, honest answer: nothing, or close to it.