Green Suggestions To Litter Removal

[Diana Faye]

I'm making a personal choice to attempt to reduce my usage of plastic products where I can. One of my biggest dilemmas is that I use plastic bags from the grocery store to throw away my cat's waste. I have 2 poop/pee machines less than a year old, so I can easily toss a bag once a day.

Does anyone here have any suggestions or other techniques? I have a septic, so I'm not sure if I trust "flush-able" litter.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. The only thing I can think of is to use grocery paper bags. They might be a little bigger than you probably need, so you could buy paper lunch bags from a store and use those. If need be, line them with paper towels.

I wouldn't trust 'flush-able' litter either.

 

[DreamerRose]

I would use the paper lunch bags, too. They are perfect for one day's scoops, and of course, they are biodegradable.

 

[Kflowers]

If you get bags for fresh veggies they work. the bags that rice cakes come in will hold three days cleaning one litter box. There are plastic bags made for picking up your dog's poo that are especially bio-degradable. pay attention to the use by date as they are really bio-degradable.

 

[Wile]

I'd suggest you look and see how your city recommends dealing with the waste. In my area cat poop is flushed, and litter goes out for compost pick up. I find paper grocery bags can handle lightweight litters, but not for an extended period of time due to sogginess. I have also used those corn-based biodegradable plastic bags. They are ok for lighter litters, but don't really have enough strength for significant amounts of heavy litter like clumping clay. I double-bag heavy clay litters in both compostable plastic and paper bag to keep the bags from splitting. So far it has worked

I have used flushable litters in the past and they are fine for a city-based system. The Oko litter in particular breaks down in water very well. I would not use them in a septic tank though or you will have to pay to have it emptied constantly

 

[Kflowers]

If you're on a septic system don't flush it.

We dumped a litter box in the yard. It promptly rained. There was a litter rock that lasted several immovable months.

 

[Diana Faye]

I'd suggest you look and see how your city recommends dealing with the waste. In my area cat poop is flushed, and litter goes out for compost pick up. I find paper grocery bags can handle lightweight litters, but not for an extended period of time due to sogginess. I have also used those corn-based biodegradable plastic bags. They are ok for lighter litters, but don't really have enough strength for significant amounts of heavy litter like clumping clay. I double-bag heavy clay litters in both compostable plastic and paper bag to keep the bags from splitting. So far it has worked

I have used flushable litters in the past and they are fine for a city-based system. The Oko litter in particular breaks down in water very well. I would not use them in a septic tank though or you will have to pay to have it emptied constantly

Rural area- there is little to no waste management. Single stream recycling and garbage pickup. Everyone runs off septics and wells- even the town borough doesn't have a sewer system. My HOA does have certain regulations to protect the nearby lake from run off, plus any number of critters come by including bears. I tried a little compost once and uh, it didn't go well lol (the bear probably has a differing opinion). My concern with paper bags would be there durability. I mean, my main trash is a plastic bag obviously, and I do put the bagged waste in there. The plastic bags I can tie off so there's minimal smell. I could give it a shot with paper and see what happens.

I feel like it can be such a challenge to be environmentally friendly.

 

[Kflowers]

Diana Faye I think on this one your first focus is going to be what can you reuse for the purpose. I've been reusing as much as possible. The thing is out where we and you apparently are, trash is supposed to be put in plastic bags. I was using the bags the grocery gave with the groceries, but as they stop that will have to buy plastic bags to put the trash in. Something is wrong with that picture.

When we lived in the big city with nice big trash cans, I scooped the litter into a bowl and dumped it in the outside trash. That was nice. We did not have bears, I don't even want to think about that.

I also got my first cloth grocery bags in the big city. I have plenty now and if I don't let them fill them up completely I can pick them up. I still have trash to throw away, but I'm working on it. I take it to the dump myself, which actually makes it more tricky.

 

[Diana Faye]

Diana Faye I think on this one your first focus is going to be what can you reuse for the purpose. I've been reusing as much as possible. The thing is out where we and you apparently are, trash is supposed to be put in plastic bags. I was using the bags the grocery gave with the groceries, but as they stop that will have to buy plastic bags to put the trash in. Something is wrong with that picture.

When we lived in the big city with nice big trash cans, I scooped the litter into a bowl and dumped it in the outside trash. That was nice. We did not have bears, I don't even want to think about that.

I also got my first cloth grocery bags in the big city. I have plenty now and if I don't let them fill them up completely I can pick them up. I still have trash to throw away, but I'm working on it. I take it to the dump myself, which actually makes it more tricky.

Well, I am reusing the grocery bags but it's still plastic. I wanted to invest in the reusable. I'll have to put more thought into if and how I can make this better.

And the bears aren't so bad, just mostly a nuisance. Like raccoons except much, much bigger, and you don't want to open a dumpster lid to find one in there. Black bears have pretty mild temperaments, but still have very large claws.

I have a bear that hits my cans at least 2x a year. I'm pretty good about not drawing it near but, neighbors are not always so good about that. And of course you have the people who like to feed them, so they have no fear of people. It's completely moved my trash can and likes to take the bags across the road into my neighbor's yard, which is super embarrassing for me to go over and clean up. It seems to enjoy tearing up the bags full of cat litter, so I've had to scrape up wet clay clumps as well as whatever else that gets thrown about.

 

[Kflowers]

Do you suppose bears are related to dogs? Not that any of my dogs every attacked a litter box...

 

[Diana Faye]

Do you suppose bears are related to dogs? Not that any of my dogs every attacked a litter box...

Hmm, according to google they are part of the same order (carnivora), but different families (canidae and ursidae). Cats are also part of that order but obviously different from bears. Interesting thought, though.

Also found this bit- "The order Carnivora is divided into two branches, the Feliformia (cat-like) families, and the Caniformia (dog-like) families. The Feliformia branch includes the families Felidae (cats), Hyaenidae (hyenas), Herpestidae (mongooses) and Viverridae (civets and genets). The Caniformia branch includes the families Canidae (dogs), Ursidae (bears), Mustelidae (weasels and relatives), Procyonidae (raccoons and relatives), Otariidae (eared seals) and Phocidae (true seals). This means that dogs and bears are more closely related to each other, and the other caniform families, than they are to the feliform families, such as cats - however, they are still more closely related to cats, hyenas, etc. than they are to animals from different orders, such as ourselves." answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081210114007AAPZKjS&guccounter=1

 

[Kflowers]

Amazing. I would never have thought to separate mongooses and weasels. But there you are.

When I think back on it, yes, my dog's face was similar to a bear's except for the slope of the forehead. Still, apprehensive of bears. But glad you can get them out of the dumpsters. Must be frightening for the little ones.

mad google skills there. Diana Faye still working on mine.

 

[Diana Faye]

Amazing. I would never have thought to separate mongooses and weasels. But there you are.

When I think back on it, yes, my dog's face was similar to a bear's except for the slope of the forehead. Still, apprehensive of bears. But glad you can get them out of the dumpsters. Must be frightening for the little ones.

mad google skills there. Diana Faye still working on mine.

It's best to make a habit of tapping on a dumpster lid, so you don't get a cranky and surprised critter jumping in your face. There's a restaurant who's dumpster is regularly visited by a bear. I don't have a picture but she is HUGE, takes up the whole thing like she's in a bath tub. Staff generally just have to wait her out before they can throw out more trash.

 

[catapault]

Diana Faye, if the used litter goes into a garbage can plastic bag that ends up in a landfill it makes absolutely no difference, environmentally, if the litter is bagged in paper or plastic. The anaerobic conditions in a landfill means that there is very little breakdown of even compostable material like wilted salad greens, stale bread, vegetable peels. The used litter and its "wrapper" will not decay.

In fact, there are even college courses where students excavate into landfills, wearing breathing gear and oxygen tanks, finding spoiled meat that was discarded a year or more ago, validated time span through newspapers it was wrapped in.

I applaud your interest in helping the environment but what you bag used kitty litter in will not have an impact.

 

[IronHippo]

Feline Pine is supposed to be usable for mulch. I don't know if you have much fertilizing needs or how good of a mulch cat pee-soaked sawdust might be, though. But the idea is that you could just spread the sawdust outside instead of needing to bag and toss clumps. Maybe something to look into? We live in an apartment so we have no need for the mulching aspectas advertised. I just toss the sawdust and flush the poop.

 

[m3rma1d]

Yep, pine pellets are compostable.

 

[sabrinah]

Used pine litter does disappear rather quickly. I tossed some outside when I first started using pine pellets just to see what would happen and it had become one with the dirt within a couple days. It did attract neighborhood cats though, so that's a bit of a problem.