Anipal in action at the UN - Plasticity Pitch

Posted in Our Community @ Dec 11th 2019 - By Dr Stephanie Stubbe, AniPal

Dr Steph Stubbe's presentation at the SEA of Solutions and Plasticity Conference, The United Nations, Bangkok, Thailand

Thank you Plasticity and Sea Circular for hosting this crucial conference and bringing together leading minds who can help tackle plastic pollution.

Hello everyone, my name is Stephanie Stubbe , I’m a Veterinarian from RSPCA Victoria and today I would like to introduce you to AniPal, …..where we are creating animal ambassadors for change.

The hard facts:

There are more than 8 million tonnes of plastic entering our oceans every year with many more than 100,000 marine animals dying as a consequence.

In 2050 there will be more plastic by weight in the ocean than fish (World Economic Forum, 2016). This crisis extends to waterways and our land, threatening natural ecosystems, as well as the wildlife and humankind who depend upon it (Philos. Trans. R. Soc, 2009)

Anipal – our aims…

AniPal is a social enterprise designed to repurpose plastics while educating veterinary clients and partners about the impact of plastics and the importance of plastic recycling & reducation.

Our ultimate aim is to help the veterinary and animal communities transition to more sustainable practices.

We endeavour to help lower our industries environmental impact without compromising our clinical standards.

Anipal – so far…

As a starting point, AniPal provides recycled plastic alternatives for a number of products that are made from virgin plastic. To achieve this, we have partnered with local and international clean up organisations, recycling companies and manufacturers.

Initially, it was discovered that Australia lacks a key element in locally manufacturing certain recycled products, namely spinning yarn from recycled plastic pellets. As an intermediary step, AniPal sources an ethical international alternative. Alongside its partners, AniPal is helping build local recycling capacity so that the full recycling supply-chain can hopefully be provided within Australia.

We launched our first collection of collars and leashes made from recycled plastic bottles 11 months ago.

Kindly, our Veterinary community have accepted us with open arms. RSPCA, veterinary clinics in Australia & NZ, Sea Shepherd Australia and recently Provet, Australia’s largest Veterinary distributor, have all reached out to support, collaborate and stock our products.

To date, we have had great support from mainstream media including the ABC, World Wildlife Foundation and numerous Veterinary Media organisations including The Veterinarian and Australian Veterinary Association.

The market size of pet products, not including dog food or treats, is 37 B dollars globally and in 2016, 12.2B was spent on pets, an increase of 42% since 2013

Anipal - why we're different

There are 2 pet accessories companies, one in the UK and another the US, who are trialling a niche line of recycled plastic dog collars and leads. This is an experiment for these organisations and sustainability is far from their focus.

Here lies AniPal’s clear point of differentiation: we are the only Veterinary driven animal organisation who core ethos is to help transition the veterinary & animal communities to sustainable practices- enhancing the positive impact Veterinarians & pet owners can make.

Our ambition is very large. It’s not just dog collars, but everything used, chewed, broken and gobbled in a pet’s life, we will provide a sustainable alternative.

Here are some examples of Anipal in action!

We are currently expanding our product lines and are in discussion with international distributors, large pet speciality retail stores as well as human hospitals.

Anipal is enabling our pets to lead the charge in cleaning our planet and oceans.