Need help with being "green" while cleaning litterboxes

[jazzcat]

I'm trying to be more "Green" around here but one place I really fail is with disposing of the litterbox contents. I use clumping litter and when I clean the boxes I put the clumps in a plastic shopping bag and put that in the trash. What could I use besides plastic bags that would be okay for the environment?

Keep in mind that I clean the boxes daily and I take my trash off once a week so it has to be something that won't stink or has to be reopened every day. Also, I don't want to change the type of litter - the cats react badly to change (so do I).

Any ideas or suggestions? What do you use?

[Karen]

Do you know what happens to your trash? Does it go to a dump, or to an incinerator - make that a "Waste to Energy Reclamation Center" for those determined to be politically correct!

[Freedom]

I know that, for dogs, there are poop scoop bags which are environmentally friendly. I use them for the dog but . . . they are too small for me, emptying so many litter boxes. I need a bag per box! Plus, I need something the scoop will fit in easily. I am not always at my best when I am cleaning the boxes, so trying to aim for a small bag opening would never work.

[jazzcat]

Karen - We have a convenience center with recycling nearby and I take it there. I'm pretty sure the trash goes to a dump/landfill.

[catmandu]

I PUT SOME OUT WITH MY TRASH, THE REST I LEAVE IN A GARBAGE BIN AT THE BUS STOP THAT HAS A GARBAGE BAG INSIDE , AND ITS THE MALLS BAG, AND IT GOES TO A LANDFILL.
I AM SUPRISED HOW MUCH WASTE THERES WITH 10 CATS, I AM ALWAYS RUNNING OUT OF LITTER.

[Jessika]

This may be gross to some, but we re-use an empty tub of kitty litter to dump it all into, since it has a lid we can just pop the lid on. We have about five or six litterboxes to clean out a day so it can add up quick!

[jazzcat]

This may be gross to some, but we re-use an empty tub of kitty litter to dump it all into, since it has a lid we can just pop the lid on. We have about five or six litterboxes to clean out a day so it can add up quick!

Actually that is what I put each plastic shopping bag into when I clean the boxes daily so I guess I just need to bypass the plastic bag and dump right into the litter bucket. I imagine that gets mighty stinky though.

I got you beat on the litterbox number - I have 9 total. I have a large one with a lid in the laundry room, 6 in the "litterbox room" which is a walled of room of the garage the cats have access to through a pet door and 2 in the garage for the 2-3 cats I allow to stay out there for a few hours a day.

[Purr-tender]

I'm glad you brought this up. I recycle everything faithfully and was just thinking about this very subject while I was scooping last night. I use the clumping litter also and have 7 boxes that I clean twice every day. That's 4 Wally World bags a day. I even have a couple of neighbors saving bags for me. Actually, I kind of considered my reuse of the bags as a form of recycling.

Mary

[columbine]

I use these. They're crazy expensive, but I save a little by buying them by the case lot. I have the sort of plumbing that necessitates a lot of my TP landing in the bathroom wastebasket anyway, so I just scoop the litter into there, tie it up, and pop it into the garbage can.

They also come in doggy cleanup size, which are smaller and so cost less per each.

Love, Columbine

[cassiesmom]

Cassie doesn't usually bury her stools very well, so I scoop and flush them. The plumber told me to do this only if they're not covered with litter. The ones she does bury, I can't put in the toilet. When I empty the whole box, though - it goes in a plastic bag, then in another bag, and goes out with the regular trash. I'm with purr-tender - I consider the reuse of plastic grocery bags for litter pan management as a form of recycling.

From the Sorptive Minerals Institute, www.sorptive.org:

Is Discarded Clay Mineral-Based Cat Litter Clogging the Nation’s Landfills?
Rather than clogging our nation’s landfills, clay mineral-based cat litters are actually helping to protect the surrounding environment. By law, the construction of most landfills begins with the installation of a liner made from compacted clay. In most land fills the clay used for this purpose is sodium bentonite, the same material used in clumping cat litter. The compacted clay forms a very low permeability barrier that prevents contaminated water inside the landfill (leachate) from seeping out and contaminating nearby soil and groundwater. The strong attraction of sodium bentonite for many types of contaminants also helps to remove contaminants from the small amount of water that does escape from the landfill. This keeps potentially harmful materials contained within the landfill. Discarded cat litter acts in much the same, helping to seal the contents of the landfill and remove contaminants from landfill leachate.

Although the sodium bentonite in clumping cat litter has the capability to swell significantly when in contact with water, its swelling is limited to the empty space available for it to swell into. As a result, clumping cat litter can only swell into existing air space within the landfill. This helps to further seal the contents of the landfill by eliminating the air space through which leachate can flow. Swelling of wetted clumping cat litter within a landfill cannot increase the volume of the landfill.

The most recent studies of waste materials entering landfills, as published by the Environmental Literacy Council (2008), indicate that approximately 26% is paper products; 18% is food scraps; 16% is plastic; 9% is rubber, leather or other textiles; 7% each is yard waste, metals, and wood; and 6% glass. Cat litter falls in the “other” category, which is approximately 4% of the total.* Although millions of pounds of clay mineral-based cat litter is sent to landfills each year, the data from these studies shows that it represents a tiny fraction of the total solid waste materials in landfills.

[Catty1]

Those BioBags look great! I use clay litter and wish there was a "greener" way to go than regular plastic bags.

Woohoo - gonna look for these in Canada! Thanks!

[shais_mom]

I'm with purr-tender - I consider the reuse of plastic grocery bags for litter pan management as a form of recycling.

.

me 3!
I save just about every kind of bag I use for the litter boxes. Especially, ziploc ones. I've thought about composting, but I'm not sure I'd put litter in there. #1) my hands go in there #2) it would really attract other cats/critters I'd think

[Emeraldgreen]

I've been thinking about this as well! We use the plastic grocery bags left over from our shopping and scoop our 4 boxes twice a day so it takes 2 bags per day. We also keep those 'full' bags in a big plastic container with a lid until it's full and then dump those bags into a garbage bag every few days.
I had been thinking about using paper grocery bags and then disposing them into the plastic box and then a few days later into a garbage bag.
But a few of our local grocers are planning on switching their plastic bags over to a new bag that looks pretty much the same as the regular plastic but is supposed to be environmentally friendly and is biodegradable.

[Pembroke_Corgi]

I remember learning in college that because of the way that landfills work, even "green" or biodegradable containers do not degrade. This is because trash is buried below ground and compacted where the air and micro organisms needed to break it down cannot reach it. So, essentially none of this trash will break down anyway.

This means the best way to be green in this matter is to consider how much energy goes into the production and destruction of the item- so reusing plastic bags you would accumulate anyway seems to be the best choice!

I hope this helps!

[karlyb]

I use those brown paper bags that kids carry their lunch in. They're just the right size for the scoop, paper is biodegradable, and they're cheap. Fortunately, I have an area at the back of my property where I can dump the used litter as there is no trash pick-up out in the boondocks where I live. With the most recent kitty that was dropped off at my house last month (I live in the country so people think it's okay to drop off their unwanted cats here) I now have 13 cats so that is a lot of cat poop!