Need help with being "green" while cleaning litterboxes

[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.

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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!

[CathyBogart]

We have a mini garbage can next to the box. It gets emptied once a week. It does have to be opened briefly every day, but I clean two litterboxes into it and I've never had a problem with the smell. More importantly, neither has my FMIL, who has a very sensitive sense of smell.

[columbine]

I use Yesterday's News litter, which really stops odors (unless Smudge drops a major stink bomb, in which case I'll clean the box again) and is both scoopable and light & easy to carry. And it's made out of old newspapers, so it's green too! Apparently its only drawback is that you can only find it in some places and not in others, but my nearest supermarket almost always has it, and frequently has it on sale.

Love, Columbine