Buoys, Buoys, Buoys

Our Ripley loves toys, especially balls! Her special trick is carrying two balls and dribbling a third! For Ripley part of the fun is in destroying the ball, so subsequently nothing lasts very long... I now accept that Ripley destroys toys and I am ok with that as long as she is having fun. However, I am not comfortable with a plastic-filled toy lasting 5 minutes, and then ending up in landfill and taking 500+ years to decompose! Subsequently, I was always on the look out for durable plastic-free dog toys. This gave me the idea to open Green Fang. Green Fang is on a mission to promote a greener lifestyle for you and your pet by only selling plastic-free eco-friendly dog toys. This means selling

toys without plastic swing-tags and made from natural materials by companies that use greener plastic-free packaging options. (My absolute pet hate is when I receive lovely plastic-free eco-friendly dog toys for Ripley in a box sealed with plastic tape!).

Last year Ripley managed to damage her Boomer Ball beyond repair. Boomer Balls are hard plastic balls great for destructive dogs. It was a third-generation toy (kindly gifted), so I have absolutely no complaints as Ripley literally loved it to death. However, I didn't jump online to buy a new one as I wanted to research more eco-friendly options...

Fast forward to our holiday in Scotland when we came across a pile of rubbish after a beach clean. We were shocked at the volume of netting, plastic bottles and buoys that had washed ashore, and we were discussing where each piece of plastic may have drifted from. Amongst the plastic was a couple of different types of buoys so I decided to take a couple back to our cottage to test as potential indestructible toys for Ripley.

After a thorough clean and disinfect we let Ripley loose with her new repurposed toys. One type of buoy (Google tells me it is a hard fishing trawl float) was a complete success! It is a good weight, rolls nicely, and it's too large for Ripley to get her jaws around it, so she dribbles it about the garden and loves it! The plastic is very hard and isn't yet showing any sights of becoming rough with wear. However, if this did happen I could just sand it lightly to protect her mouth and nose. It is important to note at this point that buoys are made from different materials (old buoys can be made from metal) and some may be coated with anti-fouling chemicals so do be careful before letting your dog loose with their new repurposed toy.