Green Your Litter Disposal
June 11, 2008 by Peggy
Kristen probably guessed from my comment on Overcoming Reusable Bag Shyness that I’d be back with a whole post on eco-friendly cat litter disposal.
In comments on the bag shyness post, Kristen said:
I’ll be honest: Even though I own several reusable shopping bags, I seldom use them. The reason? I have three cats, and I use plastic grocery bags when I clean the litterbox because I can tie them up when I’m done.
Sorry I’m picking on you Kristen, but I think this is a great topic. We’ve talked about green cat litter here, but we haven’t spent much time on litter disposal.
It’s difficult to think about buying a biodegradable bag for cat waste disposal when you can get plastic bags for free at the store. However, plastic bags (the ones offered now that are made with petroleum) may not always be free or even legal. As awareness is spreading about the pollution caused by plastic bags, more cities and countries are outlawing them. Ideally, all stores will start offering biodegradable bags made from corn. Or even more ideally, all consumers will take their own bags.
I use Feline Pine, and they recommend disposing of solid cat waste daily, then getting rid of the litter when it’s spent. Feline Pine is flushable, but it’s not recommended.
Ways to avoid disposing of cat litter
• Flushing — The Sea Otter Alliance cautions against flushing cat waste and litter. Sea otters are becoming infected with Toxoplasma. Also, Nature’s Earth, makers of Feline Pine, says, “… we at Nature’s Earth strongly urge our customers to dispose of their cat’s feces in the garbage — especially if you live in a coastal community.”
• Composting — Cat waste can be toxic. You don’t want it in your veggie garden.
Greener cat litter disposal
• Biodegradable corn-based cat pan liners from BioBag — This solves the problem of what to do with spent litter in a handy way, but it doesn’t help with the daily poop scooping.
• A recycled paper bag — Some stores like Whole Foods now offer these. I’m not saying to stop taking your own bags, but maybe skip occasionally to stock up. I feel so guilty saying that!
While BioBags can take care of litter disposal, the problem of cat poop disposal isn’t easily solved. While traditional plastic bags offered at most stores aren’t biodegradable, they require less energy to make than virgin paper bags. If you use a paper bag, everything will break down in the landfill. I’m going to also offer another option on cat waste disposal.
Greener cat waste disposal
• Use a BioBag pooper bag designed for dogs. It’s biodegradable, same as the litter pan liners. Take this directly to your garbage bin.
Hmm, I was going to suggest using a separate pet trash can lined with a recycled paper bag or BioBag kitchen bag, but I think odor would be a problem.
How do you dispose of your cat’s litter/waste?
Image via flickr.
I always scoop out the solids every morning and put them into plastic bags I’ve saved from frozen vegetables, bread, kid’s party favor bags, the bag from inside a cereal box – I save any plastic bag like that to reuse before it ends up in the trash.
Then on Fridays when we pull out the kitchen trash can liner to put it at the curb, I put the litter in with the regular trash. Even if the trash is full, the litter just seeps down into the crevices. That way I never need a bag just to dispose of litter.
It’s not a perfect method, but it’s the one I’ve got.
Didn’t they toilet train a cat in some movie? Or was that a total joke; because frankly I suggest that – it’s very eco-friendly. So are pet rocks and chia pets – also quieter
Robin, thanks for the great ideas! Since we’ve switched to cloth, I’ve been wondering what we’ll do about the cat when the plastic bag collection runs out. Funny we don’t think of bread or cereal bags in the same way as grocery ones.
Robin, those are great ideas. Thanks!
Jennifer, yes you can buy an attachment that works to potty train some cats, but the idea is a little gross to me — sharing a potty with a cat. You know it would be hit and miss… EEK. It’s eco-friendly from a litter standpoint, but the poop is still being flushed, which is very bad for the otters if you live near a coastal area. Anywhere, really, it’s not the greatest thing to introduce toxo to the water supply.
Eight, you’re right. It is funny we tend to think of bread bags so differently. That’s a good post idea — reuse ideas for bread bags, etc.
We use the World’s Best Cat Litter. Honestly, that is the name. It is made from corn and is completely flushable. We flush the kitty poop and the soiled litter.
My understanding of toxoplasmosis is that the parasite is transmitted to the cat if she eats an infected wild animal – rat, mouse, birds, etc. Since most litter box cats are primarily indoor cats, it seems to me that flushing the litter would not be a major source of toxoplasma in the water supply. Waste water is treated before it is released back into the water cycle. We do not dump untreated sewage into the ocean (presumably). So I have to disagree that there is a risk.
Peggy – sharing a potty with a cat can’t be any more hit or miss than sharing it with a 4 year old boy!
if I sit on one more wet seat! Oh My!
Thanks for all the information.
carolyn
Carolyn, you’re welcome! Thanks for commenting.
That advice about not flushing cat litter and poop is more for people who let their cats go outside, but there are several reasons an indoors-only cat may have toxo as well. The cat could have been infected before becoming a house kitty, or it can become infected from eating undercooked meat. I suppose some indoor cats may also have a chance at catching mice too.
And sewage treatment doesn’t kill the Toxoplasma eggs. That’s why it’s illegal to flush cat poop in California. They’ve had a lot of sea otters die because of Toxoplasma.
Oh, I’ve heard it can be a little gross to share a potty with a toddler boy! I’m not sure how they’d match up with a cat, but I know cats are perpetual toddlers!
Hmm I never thought about the bread bags, etc either. I’ll have to start saving these as I now need something to use as well. Thanks for the idea Robin. We’ve been hooked on Archer Farms cereal, so we don’t have many plastic bags from cereal anymore. But when I do, I’ll be using those also since they are heavy.
The bread bags are great for all sorts of things. I bring them to the farmers market and they’re usually sturdy enough to reuse many times. My grocery store offers plastic produce bags made from 100% recycled materials so I use those for the kitty waste. I’m hoping they will eventually have the kind of bags that also decompose like the Bio Bags.
Hey Jodi and Lucinda.
The only thing I don’t like about the bread bag idea for kitty waste/litter is that you’re putting something that’s biodegradable into a bag that’s not, so that would keep the poo and litter (if it’s natural like Feline Pine) from breaking down.
Maybe one day ALL bags will be biodegradable. Wouldn’t that be nice?
I live no where near an ocean and do not have a sewer. We use a septic tank. I am just starting to use the ‘feline pine’ and I am hoping to locate a way to dispose of this in a semi composting manner. Not composting as for veggies and such. Maybe a bucket in the ground and use some of the products used in stand alone poop toilets for camping. Once all that’s left is pine I can throw it on the ground under the trees.
Any ideas on how to make this work?
Caganimalover, you lost me on the “stand alone poop toilets.” You want to use litter in those?
You’re right that cat litter shouldn’t be used for composting on gardens for human consumption. You can use it around shrubs and trees though.
http://www.naturesearth.com/forums/viewthread/133/
I will have to compost it somehow before I can use it around my trees or (ugh) the dogs will have tootsie roll treats (yuck). So I need a way to compost the ‘kitty treats’ before using it in the yard.
This is where I thought about whatever is added to camping pottys to breakdown the solid matter.
Thanks for the info on BioBags. I just ordered some from Gaiam to try. I’ve been looking for a greener option for disposing of the litter for a while.
Also thanks for the bit on flushing cat litter, I’m going to pass that on to a friend of mine who does that, to let her know how bad it is!
I have a dog and 3 cats, and we use biodegradable poop bags for the dog and for scooping the boxes daily. They’re the prefect size and are actually pretty cheap. We also have been using Arm and Hammer Essentials natural corn grain litter in the boxes because our cats are picky and wouldn’t use feline pine.
A friend’s family has a doggy douly for their dog poop, but I was wondering if you could use that for cat poop as well, as long as it’s not clay litter?
You know you can flush the cat poop and felne pine is bio-degradeable.
In my goal of not throwing any plastic in our trash, I’ve been using a sheet of newspaper when cleaning our cat’s litterbox. I just roll up the clumped scoopable litter and/or poop in once page of the newspaper.
We are considering going from 4 days of newspaper delivery to reading all our news on-line, so not sure what I will do then?
I’m going to try that pine kittylitter you mentioned.
Another good natural, flushable litter is Swheat Scoop. I think it has a little better odor control over Worlds Best Kitty Litter and isn’t as messy as the Arm and Hammer Essentials which is really fine and seems to stick to our cats paws and get over everything. Thanks for the info on the bio degradble poop scoop bags!
Hi all, These are great ideas but you might want to check with your municipality before spending money on biodegradable bags, etc. These bags may be environmentally preferred just from a manufacturing aspect. However, your trash might not go to a landfill; it may got to an incinerator and then the biodegradable aspect is no longer important.
So, this whole dilemma is a really huge issue for me for several reasons.
1. I obviously don’t want to flush the poo for the sake of the sea otters.
2. I’m not particularly fond of the smell of cat poo emanating from my garbage. Then there is the whole issue of buying biobags instead of reusing ones that you already have. The saying is, after all, Reduce, Reuse, Recylce, in that order.
3. Wheat and corn are extremely hyper-allergenic to cats, and using litters made from these materials can and will lead to asthma and other respiratory problems. (Cats are, after all, very strict obligate carnivores and have absolutely no need/use for corn or wheat in their digestive system, let alone in their lungs from inhaling the dust of these litters, which tend to be very dusty, by the way.)
4. Cats are extremely clean and fastidious animals and should not, ideally, have ANY waste in their litter box at any time. So, Feline Pine is not a good solution because it is not clumping and you can not remove the urine waste on a daily basis. Let alone the fact that cats HATE having strong odors in their litter box and Feline Pine smells very strong. Smells good to us, not so good to cats, which then can lead to an inappropriate elimination scenario where the cat must find alternatives to its litter box (yuck).
So, essentially for the health/sanity of the cat we are left with the choice of an UNscented clumping clay litter. NOT the best environmental choice, or for that matter for the health of us humans (breathing in the dust from this type of litter = no good). So, what trumps all? Is there a solution I’m missing? How can I make the elimination of the clay litter and waste more eco-friendly?
Jon, you can remove the “urine waste” as you call it on a daily basis. You need the litter box specially designed for Feline Pine. It’s about $20 and available online. Why do you need clumping litter anyway? I just scoop the poop daily.
I have long been struggling with how best to deal with my cats bathroom needs!
I have 2 cats – and this last spring I switched to a recycled newspaper litter. It does not clump, but the “used” litter expands so you can easily scoop it and separate it from the thinner, unused pellets. I found this type a better source for my cats when my eldest got a severe paw infection that was being aggravated by getting clay litter stuck between her toes. I also have to say, the newspaper is very low dust, and because the pellets are larger, they don’t get stuck between kitty toes and tracked all over my apartment. I am also happy that the litter is made from recycled newspaper.
I too tend to rely on the plastic grocery bags for disposal – but I am hoping to switch to a better system.
Melissa, I tried recycled newspaper litter briefly, but thought it wasn’t great for odor control. Do you do anything special with it? I’m still using Feline Pine.
This is, I agree, a conundrum with no real good solution so far. Another thing that troubles me is that people seem to think that using things like BioBags, which are “100% compostable” means that if you throw it in the trash it will break down faster than plastic without any harmful by products. However, the BioBag site itself even states “BioBags will decompose in a controlled composting environment in 10-45 days, leaving no harmful residues behind.” Keyword here is controlled. A controlled environment is basically “a large facility where compost…reaches 140 degrees for ten consecutive days.” So unless you know you are sending your corn based plastics to a large scale commercial composter they are probably going to landfills where “there’s no evidence it will break down there any faster or more thoroughly than PET or any other form of plastic”.
There are still advantages in the production of the corn based plastics, but the end product, for now, seems to be about the same.
Just to let you guys know.
Information taken from:
http://www.biobagusa.com
and
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/plastic.html?c=y&page=3#ixzz0XE7Y9Rby