Pet ownership and environmental consciousness don't always sit comfortably together. Cats are obligate carnivores, which means their diet has a meaningful carbon footprint regardless of how you feed them. The accessories, furniture, and consumables that go with cat ownership add to that. And the pet industry, like most consumer industries, has been quick to apply sustainability language to products where the underlying reality is more complicated than the label suggests.
This article is written from a sustainability background — Culm's founder works in lifecycle assessment and environmental product declarations by profession. We've tried to apply the same rigour here that we apply to our own product: being specific about what's actually better, honest about trade-offs, and clear about where the claims don't hold up.
We also make one of the products in this list. We'll be transparent about that where it's relevant.
"The most sustainable pet product is almost always the one you buy once and use for years — not the one with the most leaves on the packaging."
Cat food — the biggest impact category
This is where the environmental footprint of cat ownership is genuinely large, and where the options are most constrained. Cats are obligate carnivores — they cannot be vegan or vegetarian without serious health consequences. The animal protein in cat food carries a meaningful carbon and water footprint, and there's no avoiding that.
What makes a genuine difference: Insect-based cat food (brands like Yora) uses significantly less land and water than conventional meat, and is nutritionally complete for cats. Not all cats accept the transition easily, but it's worth trying. Reducing wet food pouches in favour of larger format food or dry food reduces packaging waste. Buying in bulk and choosing brands that use recyclable packaging helps at the margin.
What doesn't help much: "Natural" labels on cat food say nothing about the production footprint. Organic meat cat food typically has a higher environmental impact than conventional, not lower. The ingredient list matters more than the certifications on the front of the pack.
Cat litter — a category with real options
Conventional clay-based cat litter is a significant environmental problem. Bentonite clay is strip-mined, non-renewable, and non-biodegradable. The UK sends millions of tonnes of it to landfill every year. This is one of the categories where switching makes a meaningful and well-evidenced difference.
Worth buying: Wood pellet litters (often made from sawmill waste or FSC-certified timber) are biodegradable, clump reasonably well, and can be composted or disposed of through green waste. Paper-based litters made from recycled newspaper are similarly biodegradable. Hemp litters are compostable and absorb well. Tofu/soy litters (popular in East Asia and increasingly available in the UK) are compostable, flushable in small quantities, and dust-free.
Be cautious about: Litters marketed as "eco" that are still primarily clay or silica-based. Silica gel litters are durable but not biodegradable and require energy-intensive manufacturing. Check the ingredients rather than the front-of-pack claims.
Cat toys — mostly good, mostly overstated
Cat toys have a relatively small environmental footprint compared to food and litter — but the volume of plastic toy waste generated by cat households is real. Most battery-operated electronic toys are plastic, difficult to repair, and end up in general waste when they stop working.
Worth buying: Natural fibre toys — felt, wool, sisal, untreated cotton — biodegrade at end of life. Wand toys with replaceable heads reduce waste compared to replacing the whole toy. The reality is that most cats are as engaged by a crumpled piece of paper or a cardboard box as by a commercially produced toy, and those obviously have a minimal footprint.
Worth skipping: Cheap battery-operated toys with short lifespans. Single-use catnip sachets in plastic packaging. Any toy where the primary material is unidentified synthetic fabric or foam.
Cat beds and furniture — longevity is the key variable
The environmental footprint of a cat bed is primarily determined by how long it lasts. A synthetic fleece bed that lasts five years has a lower impact per day of use than an "organic cotton" bed that wears out in eight months. The material choice matters, but it matters less than durability.
Worth prioritising: Natural materials — wool, organic cotton, untreated fleece — over synthetic polyester, which sheds microplastics in the wash. Washable covers that extend the useful life of the base. Beds with replaceable inserts or covers rather than single-piece construction. Secondhand or upcycled options are consistently the lowest-impact choice.
Be sceptical of: "Recycled plastic" as a primary sustainability claim on cat beds. It's better than virgin plastic, but a polyester fill made from recycled bottles still sheds microplastics and still ends up in landfill. The recycled claim is real; the overall environmental profile is still poor.
Cat scratching furniture — where design makes the difference
This is the category we know most about, and the one where the gap between what's available and what should be available is widest. Most scratching posts — including many marketed as "eco" — are MDF with bonded sisal or synthetic carpet. When the surface wears through (typically within months), the entire product goes to landfill: the MDF core, the adhesive-bonded surface, the plastic clips, and the rubber base, all inseparably assembled.
What to look for: Structural materials without resin binders — natural bamboo culm or solid hardwood — rather than MDF or particleboard. Natural fibre surfaces (jute, sisal) rather than synthetic carpet or velvet. Most importantly — a post where the surface is replaceable independently of the structure. If the surface wears out and you have to replace the whole post, the product has been designed for throughput rather than longevity.
Where Culm fits: We make a bamboo post with a replaceable jute sleeve. The post is built to last indefinitely; the sleeve — the part that wears — can be removed and replaced when worn. The jute is compostable. This is the design principle we think the category needs, and we'd say the same if we hadn't built it ourselves.
A full analysis of what's actually in most scratching posts — and why most end up in landfill — is in our dedicated article on the topic.
Pet waste bags — small impact, easy win
The environmental impact of switching from conventional plastic waste bags to certified compostable ones is relatively small in absolute terms, but it's one of the most straightforward switches available to pet owners. Certified EN 13432 compostable bags will break down in industrial composting conditions, unlike conventional PE bags which persist for hundreds of years.
Important caveat: "Biodegradable" is not the same as "compostable" and has no regulated definition. Look specifically for EN 13432 or OK Compost certification. Many bags labelled "biodegradable" are simply plastic with additives that cause them to fragment into microplastics — which is arguably worse than conventional plastic. The certification mark matters.
The honest framework for sustainable pet ownership
Rather than chasing every "eco" label in every category, a more useful framework is to prioritise based on impact. The categories where decisions make the biggest difference are food (high impact, limited options), litter (high impact, good options available), and durable furniture and accessories (lower impact, but the built-to-last vs built-to-replace distinction matters a lot over time).
The question to ask in every category is the same one we ask about scratching posts: is this designed to last, or designed to be replaced? A product that lasts five years has a radically different environmental footprint than one that lasts six months, regardless of what the packaging says about its materials.
Buy once and use for as long as possible. In every category from cat food packaging to scratching posts, the most sustainable product is almost always the most durable one — bought once, maintained well, and replaced only when genuinely worn out rather than when it looks a bit tatty. Longevity beats eco-labelling in almost every category, almost every time.