From time to time a reader will ask me for some green advice. If I have any to share I gladly will ;-) but there are times that I have none.
That is when I ask you, my wonderful readers, to help out.
Such is the case with this e-mail from Kelly.
Hello - happened upon your site and so far really loving it. My question to you, how do you "greenly" clean a cat box? The litter, the "stuff" that needs to be scooped out? That agonizes me, I use reg. plastic bags (bad bad bad) and biodegradable bags, any other advise?
-Kelly
Since I don’t have a cat (and I actually spend more time than I would like sprinkling spent coffee grounds around my yard trying to keep kitties out) I have absolutely no green kitty litter advice for Kelly.
If any of you have some advice/recommendations that you would like to share we would love to hear them.
Thanks for your help!
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8 comments:
feline pine is made from sawdust and comes in a scoopable flushable kind and pellets. there pellets too but I dont think they are flushable. but they break down to sawdust so I flush the umm "solids" and the rest can be tossed in the woods. or if you have to throw it out use a paper bag and it will all decompose.
ps there is also litter made of recycled newspaper and another made of wheat chaff.
ummm. our friends by "eco" cat litter- pine? anyhoo, if Kelly has a compost or her municipality has a system, then perhaps compost is the way to go? she could use paper bags so it would break down.
crazy cat lady here...
ok. so.
You don't get much choice over what litter your cats will use. Sure, some are better than others, but what good is biodegradeable corn-based litter if the cat poops in front of the box? Not much.
SO, if you can't start them as babies on an environmentally friendly brand, don't cry if they won't switch to one later. Try it, sure, but don't freak out if it doesn't happen. Cats are picky creatures.
As for the stuff you scoop out: You don't have to buy special bags or worry too much about what you use. No matter how green we try to be, we still wind up with the bags the cat food came in, the bags the litter came in, the random bag we get when we forget ours at the checkout, coffee bags, rice bags, the cardboard boxes cereal comes in, the #5 non-recycleable plastic containers take-out comes in sometimes... there's always something you can use if you look around your kitchen at what sorts of containers wind up in the trash. Think outside the "box" on this one, and you'll find plenty of solutions!
Good Morning! We have a lot of cats here at The Royal Ranch and we use wood pellets as litter. These are pellets that are meant to be used in a pellet stove, made from sawdust so there is no loss of trees for this specific product. They are very absorbent and even have a pleasant woodsy smell. They do not clump, so more frequent cleaning is necessary, but it is all natural so you can dispose of it however you wish, but you can do it directly into your trash container outside and quit using those bags. One more thing, clumping cat litter can be deadly to dogs, so be sure to keep it away from them.
My recommendation is to use bags you can't recycle and will be thrown away anyway. Like produce bags, bread bags, cereal bags, etc.. You can get them from friends if you don't have enough.
That way nothing new goes to the landfill.
If you need to buy something then I would go for recycled plastic since the biodegradable bags don't really biodegrade in a landfill.
The post-poopie bit, I'm not clear on. However, biodegradable litter is available. I buy Yesterday's News, made from recycled newspapers, and use it on icy sidewalks in winter. It's gone by spring, decomposed into the lawn, without the damage that salt can do.
My favorite cat litter is World's Best Cat Litter. My cats actually used it without a lot of hassle switching over. We tried many other "natural" brands and this was the only one that I had great sucess with. The second best was swheat scoop. The cats were pretty happy with this too, but in high humidity it molds (I had a litter box on a screened-in porch in FL.
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