Green Goes the Lounge

The basic philosophy at DogTown Lounge is to reuse, recycle, and continue to find new ways to be responsible in making the best use of our resources. To that end, we use heavy cotton towels instead of paper towels, recycled yoghurt containers for storing ingredients in the freezer, and hunt thrift stores, yard sales, and craigslist for equipment and supplies.

Because of this ingrained green habit, there has been an ongoing search for better containers for our products. The plastic deli containers and plastic recloseable bags have been very difficult to replace with appropriately freezer-safe yet earth-friendly products. Therefore, we ask that you bear with us as we transition to our new freezer containers, starting with the next batch of Charley Chow.



Green Duck offers compostable and biodegradeable products made from plants, and they have a local office right in Carytown. Their range includes replacements for most restaurant take-out materials, as well as all kinds of plastic bags. We will be using their bagasse 16 and 32 oz containers. Bagasse is made from the leftover fiber in sugarcane after the sugar has been extracted. In testing, these containers do break down in our compost heap in about 60 days, but can also be crushed and added to curbside recycling bins. They break down quite a bit faster when Fletcher Lou and Annie get to "prepare" them for composting. :) These containers resemble old-fashioned ice-cream buckets, and are a lovely cream color with the texture of soft paper. We are excited to be able to offer our customers these earth-friendly containers for our products, and look forward to hearing your feedback.

We are also using PLA cups for samples now. PLA is a clear, compostable material made from corn, which breaks down even faster than bagasse, but doesn't last as long in the freezer, so we'll only carry limited amounts to each market. Please ask for a free sample if you'd like your pets to try our products. Unfortunately, Green Duck does not offer a suitable recloseable bag for Dried Chicken Fingers just yet, but we will continue to look for a solution.

As the change in containers necessitates a modification to our labels, we'll only have Charley Chow in a few of the new bagasse 32 oz size for sale this weekend at South of the James. If you are feeding a large dog, this size may be more convenient for you than the 16 oz ones, so please don't hesitate to ask at the DogTown Lounge booth. Also, FYI - we always keep a few biodegradeable bags on hand in case of a doggy-doo emergency at the market, just ask. See you Saturday morning!