The average dog bed—the kind you find sitting on shelves at your local pet store or grocery store—are made from flimsy materials, using fast and underpaid labor. They'll probably last about a year at most, and many will start to wear out and lose support well before then. If you've got a destructive dog, that bed might be lucky to last a week.

Beds like these inevitably end their short lives in landfills, contributing to pollution through the trash they become, along with the wasted energy, materials, and fuel that go into their production and distribution. They may seem cheap to replace at first, but over time, all that money and waste add up. As it turns out, those low price tags often hide some very steep costs to both you and the environment.

Wherever possible, we incorporate recycled materials into our products. The polyester fiberfill that we use in some of our beds and accessories—such as our Tough Ripstop Crate Pad and California Grizzly Bear toy—is made from 100% recycled plastic water bottles. Through these products, over 8 million plastic bottles have been recycled so far.

The packaging for our products, including the shipping boxes, is made with up to 40% recycled content. We also strive for zero waste with our foam mattress production—after cutting up the foam to make our orthopedic beds, we shred the leftovers and use those to fill our softer, pillow-style bed mattresses. We don't throw any of it away, which helps us keep more than 50% of our waste out of landfills.

Wherever possible with any products that have metal components, we use aluminum. Aluminum is one of the few things that is infinitely recyclable, and unlike most materials, it's actually cheaper to recycle than it is to produce. It's found most prominently on our Chew Proof Armored beds, where it makes up the frame and corners for every bed.

Not only are these aluminum beds incredibly strong and resilient, but at the end of their lifespan, they can be easily broken down and recycled by the consumer.

Though we ask for returns to be sent back to us in new and unused condition, we understand that it isn't always obvious upon arrival if a bed will work for a particular pup. Sometimes the bed needs to be tried out once or twice, and sometimes the beds may accumulate gentle signs of use in the process. While these returns can't be restocked as new products, this isn't the end of the road for them, either.

We thoroughly inspect every item that comes back to us, and those that remain in like-new condition with only minor marks or blemishes are sold at a steep discount as an "Open Box" item so that they can find a new home. Our orthopedic and pillow beds are disassembled into their components and reincorporated into our production line. Items that show signs of heavier use can still be donated to our local shelters and rescues. This allows us to ensure very little gets wasted or thrown out.