ShurGreen expands food waste recycling role in pet food supply chain
Bottom line
ShurGreen Organic Recycling, an Ohio-based family company, is expanding its role in the pet food supply chain by taking in pre-consumer pet and human food products, processing byproducts, and even packaging, then converting those materials into monogastric animal feed, crop nutrition inputs, and repurposed packaging. Company materials say its process is built around customized rotary drum dryers designed to deliver pathogen kill and produce safe, sterile feed, and a 2025 industry report said ShurGreen recently added a second dryer that is twice the size of its first, increasing capacity to recycle wet byproducts from pet food manufacturing into dry feed for poultry and swine. (shurgreen.net)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this is another sign that sustainability efforts in pet food are moving beyond ingredient marketing and into waste-stream infrastructure. Upcycling food side streams into feed can reduce landfill disposal and methane emissions, and EPA says converting wasted food into animal feed can lower disposal costs while supporting circular use of nutrients. But the veterinary relevance is safety and oversight: any system like this has to maintain tight controls on sourcing, segregation, processing, sanitation, and regulatory compliance to make sure sustainability claims don’t outpace feed safety. (epa.gov)
What to watch: Watch for whether ShurGreen’s expanded drying capacity leads to more formal partnerships with pet food manufacturers, and whether regulators and industry groups push for clearer standards around recycled food streams in animal feed. (shurgreen.net)
ShurGreen Organic Recycling is positioning itself as a behind-the-scenes sustainability partner for the pet food industry, with a model built on taking pre-consumer food and pet food waste streams and converting them into usable downstream products instead of sending them to landfill. According to the company, those inputs can be recycled into monogastric animal feed, crop nutrition products, and repurposed packaging, with processing designed to support safe feed production. (shurgreen.net)
The broader backdrop is a pet food and food manufacturing sector under pressure to reduce waste without creating new safety risks. EPA says feeding animals is one recognized pathway for wasted food that can help companies cut disposal costs and reduce environmental impact, while FDA, USDA, and EPA jointly announced a national strategy on food loss, waste reduction, and organics recycling in June 2024. That puts companies like ShurGreen in a policy environment that increasingly favors circular systems, as long as they stay inside animal food safety rules. (epa.gov)
ShurGreen says it handles pre-consumer, unused human and pet food, processing byproducts, and product packaging from businesses, and markets an end-to-end service model that includes logistics, product destruction, and recycling. In one company case study, a Midwest dog food manufacturer used ShurGreen to manage wet extruder waste through a custom collection and transport program, replacing multiple vendors with a single waste-stream partner. The company said that helped convert landfill-bound material into usable resources while supporting compliance and sustainability goals. (shurgreen.net)
Recent capacity growth suggests demand may be increasing. Pet Food Processing reported on October 30, 2025, that ShurGreen added a second customized rotary drum dryer, described as twice the size of its original unit. The publication said the new dryer has temperature and retention capabilities intended to achieve pathogen kill and produce safe, sterile animal feed, and that it will convert wet organic byproducts from pet foods into dry feed for poultry and swine. (petfoodprocessing.net)
Industry and research sources broadly support the value proposition, while also underscoring the trade-offs. A 2025 ReFED report said 11.4% of U.S. surplus food was repurposed as animal feed in 2024, and argued that channeling safe food side streams into animal nutrition can reduce landfill disposal and potentially displace some resource-intensive feed inputs. At the same time, the same report cautioned that more research is needed to confirm overall climate benefits in all scenarios. University of Minnesota animal scientist Gerald Shurson has also argued that food waste that can’t be prevented should be recycled “to the highest possible value,” including feeding animals. (refed.org)
Why it matters: For veterinarians and other animal health professionals, the ShurGreen story sits at the intersection of sustainability, feed safety, and pet parent expectations. Many clinics are seeing more questions about sustainable pet food systems, ingredient sourcing, and waste reduction. While ShurGreen’s current output appears focused on livestock feed rather than finished pet food, its role in handling pet food manufacturing byproducts reflects a larger shift toward circular supply chains around companion animal nutrition. That makes traceability, hazard control, and regulatory clarity especially important. AAFCO notes that ingredients used in pet food and animal feed must be safe for animal consumption, and FDA’s animal food framework adds preventive controls expectations for manufacturers. (aafco.org)
There’s also a practical caution for the profession: “recycled” and “upcycled” can sound straightforward in marketing, but the underlying rules are not simple. EPA notes that regulations vary by state, and legal restrictions can apply depending on the material and species involved. AAFCO’s ingredient framework includes defined categories for some waste-derived feed ingredients, which suggests a regulatory path exists, but not a blanket endorsement for every waste stream or every end use. For veterinary teams advising pet parents, that means sustainability claims still need to be weighed alongside nutrient adequacy, ingredient consistency, and manufacturing controls. (epa.gov)
What to watch: The next phase will likely be less about the concept and more about scale, standardization, and proof. Watch for new partnerships between recyclers and pet food manufacturers, more public discussion of feed-safety controls and traceability, and clearer industry language around which waste streams can be safely repurposed, for which species, and under what regulatory guardrails. (petfoodprocessing.net)
Common questions
What does ShurGreen do with pet food waste?
It takes in pre-consumer pet and human food products, processing byproducts, and packaging, then converts them into monogastric animal feed, crop nutrition inputs, and repurposed packaging.What animals is ShurGreen’s recycled feed made for?
The article says its output includes dry feed for poultry and swine, and monogastric animal feed.How does ShurGreen say it makes the feed safe?
Company materials say it uses customized rotary drum dryers designed to deliver pathogen kill and produce safe, sterile feed.Why does this matter for pet parents?
The article says sustainability claims still need to be weighed alongside nutrient adequacy, ingredient consistency, manufacturing controls, traceability, hazard control, and regulatory clarity.