This has always secretly bothered me. I have used this type of litter for many years. I scoop every day, clumps and solids. At one time I had 5 cats and 6 litter boxes, now I have 2 cats and 3 boxes. I scoop into a plastic grocery bag tie it up and toss in the trash. I think of all these bags of poo and litter and wow, there must be a better way. The litter is great but it is not something you can compost. anyone?
[QUOTE=Sannois;8490517]
The litter is great but it is not something you can compost. anyone?[/QUOTE]
You absolutely can compost it, but due to the high levels of bacteria, the compost needs to get pretty warm. I don’t have a sunny enough spot to do it at my house, but it can definitely be done. I found some great links on google when I looked into it a couple of years back.
Some of the newer non clay or sand brands claim they are flushable but not in large amounts at a time and don’t know about septic.
Actually tried it with a corn based product ( ground up cobs I assume). It worked but you either had to make multiple trips from box to potty with the scoop or scoop it into a bag then split it into several batches to flush…too much trouble. Suppose if you put the box in the bathroom, it might be less of an issue.
[QUOTE=findeight;8490800]
Some of the newer non clay or sand brands claim they are flushable but not in large amounts at a time and don’t know about septic.[/QUOTE]
Things that say flushable on the label do not necessarily mean they should be flushed. The term generally means it will clear the trap of your toilet, not that it belongs in the sewer system and will not cause problems further down the line.
The only thing that should go down your toilet, even if you are on sewers, is human waste and the reasonable amount of toilet paper you use to clean yourself afterwards.
Even the moist wipes are making all kinds of problems in the piping and at the waste water treatment plants.
I have mostly clay soil and after I decide the litter is so far gone, I need to clean it all out I dump in the back of my yard. I figure it will eventually mix in. I don’t plant stuff either. I don’t have a green thumb!
poop and pee in plastic bags and tossed in regular rubbish.
You should not compost cat litter in compost to be used in the garden.
I use corn based scoopable and dump in a pile at the edge of the woods.
I used to do the same with the clay based, but DH complained that when he back filled the area with clean fill the stuff gunked up his tractor tire treads.
In my neck of the woods, it goes into the green recyclable bin that also holds kitchen waste for curb-side pickup, but it must be in a compostable bag. So I assume the municipality is composting it. (The green bin is also used for disposable diapers.)
My plumber warned me never to flush cat waste. I’ll confess to carefully flushing while I lived in an apartment (using corn litter), but once I bought a house I went back to bagging it for the trash.
We use an empty feed sack or dog food bag, and scoop daily into a small pail, then dump the contents into the dog food bag which stays scrunched up in the garage until trash day, when it’s added to the big bin that we roll down to the curb. We hated the millions of small plastic bags full of cat litter, too, and this feels a little better - we can put the plastic bread bags and plastic produce bags in the recycling instead.
[QUOTE=betsyk;8491209]
We use an empty feed sack or dog food bag, and scoop daily into a small pail, then dump the contents into the dog food bag which stays scrunched up in the garage until trash day, when it’s added to the big bin that we roll down to the curb. We hated the millions of small plastic bags full of cat litter, too, and this feels a little better - we can put the plastic bread bags and plastic produce bags in the recycling instead.[/QUOTE]
Now THIS is a great idea. my 50 sacks for sunflower seed.
I will stop using plastic bags all together. GREAT idea, Thanks.
Oh and anyone having a septic tank NEVER flush that stuff, it will kill your septic. Bad Bad Bad.
I have 3 of the plastic buckets the litter comes in that I scoop the waste into. When they get heavy, I dump them at the edge of the woods. It does degrade, it just takes a while. What is interesting is there is always coyote poop over the piles of cat poop.
We dump our (no clumping) litter then compost/mix/cover it with garden waste, grass clippings, leaves and brush. With 7 cats my garbage man would revolt if we tried to pass it off as trash.
When it snows there are lots of wild critter tracks all over the pile…
I dump mine in the horse’s manure pile to compost and spread on 80 acres!!
I have a litter genie. I do not notice a smell at all (either in the actual stand or after it is time to tie the bag and put it in the trash bin) and it is really easy to use. One bag can last a while for me, but I only have one cat.
That’s funny… after more than 12 years I’ve never seen wild animal sign near my litter pile.
I periodically flick poop and “some” used litter around the yard because it keeps the skunks out. No particular amount, just “some” and that varies. It’s a big yard, people seldom walk across the grass, no neighbors nearby, grass is cut with a riding mower. I also flick some under the porches so the skunks don’t get any ideas about moving in. If I don’t overdo it, there’s insufficient odor to bother people, and the waste breaks down after a while. Works for me. The litter boxes I use now are standard size. I used a big storage container for a while, but the cats didn’t like it enough for me to keep on using that much litter. When I had that huge box, I’d dump it into a garbage bag and throw it in the trash can. It held about 20-25# of clumping litter, though.
I use one of those Litter Genies with two cats. I only need to empty it once a week or so, so it’s less bags incorporated into the cat waste. Ends up only being one larger bag rather than a bag a day.
I use a flushable corn based litter and the cat box is built into the under-sink cabinet next to the downstairs toilet, so I scoop right into it.
I love this systems because there’s no dragging bags/buckets of used litter around, and the perfectly biodegradable waste doesn’t end up in landfill in a plastic bag.
However, flushing is something I would NOT do if my cats went outside. My cats are strictly indoors only and have been their whole lives so toxoplasmosis contamination of water is not an issue: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2002/07/kitty-litter-killing-otters
From http://icatcare.org/advice/cat-health/toxoplasmosis-and-cats
“A few days after a cat has been infected for the first time it will start to shed millions of oocysts (eggs) in its faeces. The oocysts are only shed for a short period of time, typically less than 14 days, before the body’s immune response stops oocyst production altogether. It is rare for a cat to re-shed oocysts in faeces after their first infection, and when this does occur it usually results in a much smaller number of oocysts being shed.”
Well there is no way I would flush ANY litter down my septic.
Recipe for disaster. Ask any plumber.
No, I will just quit using the little plastic grocery bags, and scoop into a bucket then into a large bag on trash day. >I would not want to dump litter on my property either, lord knows what that would attract.
I think there is another thread on this, probably with some helpful feedback.
I never heard of composting the manure of carnivores. Nor of humans.
Scoop, bag, tie, throw in garbage.
Until the country comes up with something less environmentally harmful than the disposable diaper, I’m not gonna worry about plastic bags of scoopable litter. Yes, I know it’s probably not biodegradable. But compared to disposable diapers? Incomparable.
