Ok, you made me feel guilty about putting the kitty poops in the toilet, and you didn't encourage me to compost them....WTH am I supposed to do with them??? I am NOT going to send them to the landfill where they'll sit and leach the toxins into the groundwater with all the rest of the crap in that place. Please give us some constructive ideas instead of just listing the things we shouldn't be doing.

By the way, if you do your research, you'll find that composting pet poops in the ground, ala vermicomposting, eliminates the toxins within a matter of days....look it up.

Kim, we don't like it either, but the landfill really is the safest place right now for cat poop.

Wastewater treatment plants aren't set up to get rid of the nasty bacteria, so they can get through. Scientists think that may be why sea otters off the coast of California are getting sick.

Even vermicomposting doesn't make the bacteria magically disappear. There are ways to compost even cat poop, but putting it in the ground -- where it can easily migrate into groundwater -- definitely isn't the way to do it. Trust us -- we've done our research!

Pine Litter: Can you tell me what your research is on this? Cedar is bad, without a doubt, but we use pine (NOT shavings, but pellets or scoopable) and have found it to be far superior. Both eco and cat -friendly. We use one with no additives, no treatment of any kind. I'm wondering if there could be more info provided for this? Are you speaking of the shavings only? There's a difference.

Clumping: There are a ton of clumping litters out there, made of all kinds of different materials. Some are likely ok depending on what they're made of (NOT clay, for sure). How would you define "clumping?"

Newspaper: We read the papers online-- even better! Plus, I've found that newspaper and cat waste creates an incredibly unpleasant odor and it's very difficult to be in the same room with the cat box. It needs to be cleaned and changed far more often and if we did read physical copies of the newspapers, I'd rather recycle them.

Litter Box Liners: We don't have a need for these with our Feline Fresh litter, but I'd suggest Biobag liners over plastic, even if it's recycled plastic. They're compostable and biodegradable.

Amy, I mentioned wood pellet litters in my review, and that includes pine pellets. My research suggests they are better (read: safer) than pine shavings, so if your kitties like 'em, keep on doing what you're doing!

I looked specifically into clumping sodium bentonite clay litters. If you know of clumping litters that aren't clay, I'd love to hear more about the ingredient that makes it clump.

Newspaper with a little baking soda should help take care of l'eau du litterbox fragrance, but you might find it higher maintenance. I guess it depends on what your priorities and other options are. And good catch on the box liners.

Clumping Pine:
http://www.planetwiseproducts.com/felineSc.htm

Sorry, I didn't realize that you were distinguishing between the different types of pine and I got a little worried. I had done my own research and I was thorough, so I was trying to see what conflicted.

Yeah, I definitely can't see collecting newspapers after we've been off them for so long just for litter purposes, but I guess for people who go that route and have them around, they should be used for something. However, when you're feeding your cats grain-free, as we are, the litter box tends to have a little extra kick to it-- odor wise.

Thanks for clarifying!

Amy, I can't find information on what makes Feline Fresh clump from their website. I think I might have to get one of my human translators on the phone with them...

I used to use the clumping clay but I don't even like the dust myself, so lately I have been using a mix of the non-colored silicone chips for absorbing wet stuff and the wheat based cat litter which actually clumps pretty well, and find that if I scoop and bag daily I don't have to clean whole box as often. Saves money in the long run and my furry trio seem to like it too.

Umm, so there is basically no good solution unless we spend hours soaking and drying newspaper? Fantastic. This is why people get discouraged and do nothing.

I have been using safflower seeds from SmartBox.com. They can be washed
& reused for up to 6 mo. A special cat box is needed that has a grate for urine
to pass thru & go into a reservoir. The poo is scoopable. Had no problem changing
over a few yrs ago. I have 2 litter boxes that 3 cats use.

Just have to add that composting cat litter is only for the master composters who really know what they're doing. Flushing is definitely not an option. Unfortunately, our precious furballs create a lot of waste.

I've been using kitty litter that is made from some sort of corn waste. It's a Canadian brand called President's Choice (or PC) that's available at one of our chain supermarkets here. For some reason the website isn't pulling up the product information but here's some information about it.

http://reviews.presidentschoice.ca/6584/F16903/reviews.htm

How would this stack up against the other options?
It works wonderful but I wish it came in better packaging. The bags are quite thick and only come in small sizes.

Candice
Toronto, Canada

What do you suggest for large cat family households? We personally have ten cats (all rescue) and my mother is her own local rescue agency foster home at 23... we can't be changing litter boxes every day, and the smell of even one box per two cats... not a good one to say the least. How do these alternatives rate on smell and is there maybe a more cost and time effective solution?

I use the wheat based S'Wheat - all natural, organic, biodegradable, renewable as it's made of wheat. I love this stuff and my kitties do too!

I do believe that some composting can kill off the bacteria from cat litter unless companies are lying (possible) - such as http://www.compostingwarehouse.com

I find it hard to believe that waste water treatment plants (deal with what goes down the toilet) can't deal with this perfectly fine. After all, our sewers collect dog/cat poo and a Plethora of other 'ingredients' from the drains, not that these are desirable but in an urban environment, inevitable, which get treated along with our toilet/etc water. I would like to see some factual information about sewage/waste water treatment plants ability to deal with litter and its issues, if anyone can provide...

Don't forget the wheat litter! I use natural Sweat Scoop. It's naturally clumping and clumps very well at that and is completely free of chemicals that can harm my kitties. Plus the cats love it and I think it absorbs smell better than the conventional one I used to use. It's a great choice!

We love the Multi-Cat Swheat Scoop Natural Wheat Litter at my house. Here is a link to the "Safety" page of their website. Awesome odor control. Let me know what you think!

http://www.swheatscoop.com/sftyframe.html

Re: Flushing pet waste down the toilet..it is madness!
Anit-biotics, endocryn-disruptors, phtalates are already in our water. We don't need to be adding more. We need to stop seeing the toilet as a garbage can....it all goes to the ocean eventually.
This is hardly the way to get people back to the tap.

We absolutely love Feline Pine pellets! None of our cats are bothered by the pine. We have four cats in one litter box and there is no urine smell at all (we do scoop out the litterbox several times a day) ! The only smell is when a kitty just poos. But, even people have that issue... ha ha!

i've tried the wheat for quite a while. I have multiple cats and several boxes. First i had wheat moths which i think bothered them and they didn't seem to be using boxes (they are indoor/outdoor so i think they were going outside more) but i tried a clumping litter again recently frustrated with moths and they seem to be using litter boxes more. So if there poop is toxic going outside is not good?? I live in South Florida the land of outdoor strays! i tried the pine pellets in past and might go back to. I don't know, it's frustrating and i love my cats and want their good health. Just commenting.

Thanks for the great article! This really puts it into perspective about our responsibility for caring for four-legged felines. One thing that people do need to watch out for (and I speak from experience on this) are the wheat and/or corn-based litters if you have other critters in the house. My two dogs thought the wheat litter was a buffet for them and made them quite sick. The wheat litter is great for the kitties, but make sure the litter box is not in an area accessible to other animals.

We have been using Feline Pine Clumping Litter and it seems to work well. It absorbs odor and clumps. The website with information about the product is http://www.naturesearth.com/felinepinescoop/. And, surprisingly, this is litter is a fraction of the cost of traditional, clay-based litters.

I have six indoor cats, two dogs, four birds and a fish, all of which are animals that were abandoned ( yes, even the fish). This makes for a daily cleaning workload that makes the idea of making my own litter out of shredded paper ridiculous. I moved from a big city to a very small town and found that the clumping wheat litter I was using isn't available anywhere near here. Yes, I've asked for it in stores but they want alot of money to ship it in. What can I do? Nobody wants to support my efforts to provide environmental and healthier cat litter choices. What I am doing is using Costco clumping litter because it's the best choice out of a list of bad products. I do not have the luxury of spending sixty dollars on a bag of litter that I can only get if I make sure it's shipped to me. I don't, however, change the litters boxes only scoop the poop and clumps out and throw them in the garbage. I don't change the litter that's left over, only add more as it's being used which means I'm not adding usable litter to the waste.
I would say the make your own litter out of newspaper idea is great for one or two cats but I do think it's unrealistic to think people, busy people with already too much to do, just won't do this.

PS- I will not shop at any petstore that sells animals ie, Petcetra, Petland, Petsmart, Walmart . . . etc. I spend my money on higher quality foods and have many animals to provide for, so has anyone discovered a litter that I don't have to make myself, that's as cheap as Costco clumping litter and is easy to use?

The Swheat Scoop all-natural wheat litter is great. My cats have no issue with it, although it doesn't have great odour control, especially as far as male cat pee!! As long as you scoop often, you won't have any problems. It clumps up really well, and it's safe for my fabulously spoiled kitties.

As far as parasites in wastewater plants; they can't filter out toxic chemicals, let alone pharmaceutical drug residues - what makes anyone think they can filter out parasites that weren't supposed to be in the water supply in the first place??

I would feel pretty comfortable composting my cats' litter because they are indoor-only, and both are very healthy.

My adult male neutered cat is very picky and refuses to use pine pellets--we have been using the Feline Pine scoopable for a while now b/c prior to this article I had researched and that seemed to be the most environmentally friendly--I tried working pellets in gradually and he started not to use the box. I have also tried the wheat stuff and he doesn't like that. At least I have been throwing out the litter/feces in bags that cannot be recycled. What do you suggest? I don't really think my cat will be amenable to any changes--even gradual ones...Thanks!

We use the clear, low-track silica crystals and scoop every day which makes it last for close to a month. They do a pretty good job of eliminating any odors too.

I agree with Jenn above. As much as I would like to be environmentally friendly, I do not have the time with all the other things there are to get done .....to make home made kitty litter. I have tried the pine shavings ...my cat did not take kindly to them and began to inappropriately eliminate in other areas.
Seems to me that the list here is unfortunately .....very one sided. There seem to be a wealth of bad choices and only one environmentally friendly or better choice which can be very time consuming.
This needs to catch on better by the "health" community and consumers so that it is made available in stores with more convenience and ease.....part of what drives consumer products that are NOT environmentally friendly is convenience and ease.....it is very difficult to get people to be green conscious about everything they do if they have full time jobs,kids, other responsibilities and do not have the time to do everything "homemade". I often feel that these days....there should be more hammering down on the all the companies that make products to have a responsibility to provide and make products in an environmentally conscious way......the burden on the consumer to try to "fix" the issues we are facing is too great and too many are too poor to even consider having to be specialy"green" products.
Meantime...best I can do is used recycled litter liners.....try to stretch my litter out for two weeks with daily scooping and adding baking soda towards the end of that period to help absorb odor etc and try to keep my disposed load of litter down to a minimum.
Let's hope for expanding options in the future.

Anonymous, I outlined 6 other alternatives to artisinal newspaper litter in my post. Don't get discouraged!

Candice, it looks like the PC Green litter you're using is made of corncobs, which would otherwise go to waste. It's a good choice. Some two-leggeds here have questions about how litters help with the noxious kitty litter fumes--could you let us know where corncob litter falls on the smell-o-meter?

Tori, when you have lots of cats using litter boxes, there's no silver bullet. 23 cats + (23 x food) = a whole lot of poo. Silicone gel litters are going to be the most absorbent (but chemically specious if they're dyed blue to indicate wetness). Have you tried pine pellets? They're safe, absorbent, and smell nice. And some folks (see above) swear by S'wheat.

Beth, the sad truth is that waste water treatment doesn't take care of everything, and we're not just talking about Toxoplasma gondii. (Here's a TIME article on the seal issue in particular.) Our friends at Environmental Working Group have done lots of research on what's in your tap water, and the information comes straight from the utilities themselves. (Of course, if they tested for more chemicals, like drugs, they'd find them, too.) In 2005, they found 260 contaminants in drinking water, and 141 are completely unregulated. That means there's no level for them to worry about, or to have to clean up. You can use their database to see what's in your local tap water. (And no matter how scary those contaminants seem, EWG doesn't recommend bottled water because it's basically filtered tap water, costs a lot, and wastes tons and tons of plastic. Save money by using a filter pitcher.)

Melissa, now that's a picky kitty! I'm not sure what to say if he's being that stubborn about a change, other than making the process even more gradual, and perhaps mixing the new stuff in once he's already used the box in hopes that the smell change would not be as noticeable.

I use Swheat Scoop also and it has worked great. The only complaint I have is that it gets tracked everywhere! Sometimes I sprinkle in some baking soda to cut down on the smell, as I only scoop the box every 2-3 days.

What do you recommend for holding the used litter with? I use the small plastic produce bags from the supermarket, and maybe it's not really that big of a deal since it's all going to the landfill where nothing really decomposes anyway, but I've always wondered if I should be using small paper bags, or something else?!

Thanks for all your research!

Love it, was just looking into this!
Definitely linking back here on my blog.

I currently use clay clumping litter (I know, I know, I am in the process of changing it). Is Shweat Scoop Cat Litter safe for my cat, and does it control urine odor (my male cat has an incredibly strong odor)? (I clean the litter box every day.) If it doesn't, do you know what type of litter does?

Anonymous, yes, some two-leggeds love their S'wheat. It's safe and seems to do well with odor. The only problem that could come from it would be eating it, so just make sure your feline (or pooch) doesn't mistake the litter box for a dinner platter. (Unlikely, I know, but I've heard stranger.)

Oh no, you didn't...
As the proud parent of three beautiful cats and a volunteer in a cat shelter, I'm appalled and angry at the lack of professionalism of this article and its "paranoia inducing" tone.
You write about toxoplasmosis impling it's a serious disease caused by cats and provide no link whatsoever to a proper source of information. Way to go.
Did you even bother considering that someone, worried by this misinformation, might decide to dump their cats? Or that such a piece might eventually reduce the chances of adoption for an abandoned cat?

Information about Toxoplasmosis: http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/toxo.html

So if your cat:

• is only allowed indoors

• is fed cooked food and/or healthy catfood
• occasionally drinks pastorised milk
• doesn't entertain diseased animals

The chances it will be infected by toxoplasmosis are so thin that you're more likely to get it by your glorious self eating out at some fancy sushi bar.

We have used wood pellets (stove fuel) for years now and love it. We *do* flush down the toilet, however. I had read somewhere that if you have a strictly 100% indoor cat that toxoplasmosis is not a concern. My cat is only indoors so I believe this is still a viable option for us without threatening sea otters. Can you provide any information on this?

By the way, for those that use Feline Pine pellets, they are the same as pellets for stoves, just more expensive. Switch to stove pellets for a money-saving alternative.

I also like "Dry Den" which is a wood pellet product with zeolites for odor control. I mix those with the stove pellets for deodorizing.

I've browsed the comments and it appears that no one's mentioned "world's best cat litter"... any pros and cons to this one I should know about? It is a clumping litter, but it's made out of corn! sounds good to me..

I use World's Best Cat Litter which is made from only corn for my one cat. I just scoop every day and add some fresh litter once a week or so. I think it controls odor very, very well, but it's possible my nose is used to the smell. I'll ask my housemates. After reading this I will NOT continue scooping into the toilet, but will put it in the trash (sighhh...)

I have three cats and worried about clay, i switched them to the wheat.

Two cats loved it ,the third hated it. And he proved it by pooing on my carpet.

So the vet suggested i go back to the clay. Some cats do not like change. So i did and he did. Then when i left the door open, Travis went back to the room to poo. I cleaned it up and out and shut the door.

Now he is using the clay but refuses to cover it up.

I now have three cats taking their turns in the clay and you know what....it's too hard to keep them apart from the two boxes and quite frankly, it beats Travis pooing on the carpet.

By the way, the city i live in will not allow me to recycle the wheat.

I use World's Best Cat Litter, which is made out of corn. The FAQ on their web site suggests that it is environmentally good. Not sure how to verify it though ...

http://www.worldsbestcatlitter.com/FAQ/default.aspx

"WORLD’S BEST CAT LITTER™ is 99% dust free, containing no clays, silica, synthetic binding or dust reducing agents found in other litters."

From an owner and cat perspective the litter works great! The only drawback that I've found is that it's not cheap.

What do ya'll think of this option?

Thanks, Cleo, for this very helpful information. I have to agree a bit with Julia, in that last post, though. I use Sweat Scoop (wheat litter), and it works great for us. I would highly recommend it. We also clean out the clumps daily, and it rarely smells (except just after she poops sometimes), and we keep the rest of the litter in the box for a month or so before it gets to where we need to clean it out. I had always flushed the clumps and the poop, thinking that was the best option, since I figured poop/pee/wheat was basically the same thing we people are already flushing. My cat is also indoor only (better for her and for the birds!), and she's never been outside or played with outdoor kitties. When I was pregnant, my doctor told me (off the record) that given my kitty's history, I should not worry about toxoplasmosis, since she basically has never had an opportunity to get it (of course, I didn't tell my husband, so I could have a break from the litter box for 9 months!). Anyway, this is all great info, and I'll look more into what other parasites she may have, as an indoor-only kitty, that would sufficiently warrant me filling up the landfill with her poop.

Switched to World's Best Cat Litter after several tries of others. Didn't know any better, so used clumping clay in the past, but coughed & sneezed when pouring so figured it couldn't be good for my three boys either. Initial $$ outlay is an arm & a leg, but it lasts a long time & does ok (not great) on odor. Three boys use one box (shocked my Vet that this works!), so I clean it 3 to 4 times per day. I put the clumps into the LitterLocker & dump them in our apt. house's dumpster every 4-5 days. The LitterLocker really does away with any smells.
Until there's the perfect solution, this'll continue to work for me.

Thanks for the well-researched info. Just one thing: I'd like to see you clarify your claims about toxoplasmosis to state that it's not something all cats carry. I did a ton of research on it while I was pregnant and found that cats get it from eating birds and mice, so this should not be an issue with indoor cats. Also, I read that this organism is found in the soil and on raw food as well, so there are certainly other sources for the problem.

We use Smart Boxes (the one with the safflower seeds and pee reservoir) for our 4 cats. I've got one cat that refuses to use them, though, even with a 6-month switchover period, so I conceded to keeping one scoopable litter box. I think I'll try an alternative litter now, though, based on your article.

Thanks to everyone. I am single with one cat. I save bread bags, used andwich bags, veggie bags, rice cake bags, etc. to use for the solid waste in my cat's box. Seems to keep at an even balance. The biodegradable bags will not degrade if they are placed in a land fill so I do not worry about selecting biodegradeable.

Hey there. For cat litter I use paper shreds from a paper shredder. Two of my aunts have these and they shred receipts, junk mail, canceled checks, and etc, so there is always plenty for me to use, but you could get someone from an office to hook you up. I don't do anything to the shreds, I just put them in the box. No, it doesn't smell any worse than conventional litter if you keep it clean like you ought to.

Pros: They are free, no work involved, no heavy lifting of bags of rocks, etc. And they are the most eco-friendly option, because Reuse trumps Recycle.

Cons: You cannot scoop out waste, you have to change it every few days. Sometimes paper shreds get out of the box, but these are actually easier to clean up than rocks, because you can see them easily.

Every couple of days I dump all of the used shreds into the garbage, rinse the box with a little water and vinegar, dry it out and start over again. This doesn't take too long, and I consider it better than hauling off to the store for cat litter every week.

I only have one cat, I'm not sure if this system would be good for more than one cat, because you would have to clean it out every day and it could get tedious. But still free.

I'm with Julia on this one. The Toxoplasmosis paranoia is likely to be more harmful than helpful. In considering all the warnings mentioned in the original blog here, we should remember that cats have been around since the dawn of time, have been pooping here, there and everywhere, mostly in our gardens and dirt patches since pretty much FOREVER. Toxoplasmosis has probably been around since about FOREVER. So all this "au natural" cat poop has been pervasive in the environment, naturally composted and re-merged with soil, and leached into groundwater since, well, FOREVER. I can see that sending it into our waterways to be chemically treated or "purified" isn't the best option, but I really can't see the big danger in landfills or composting. Cat poop is the least noxious of our environmental problems, IMHO.

Someone asked about waste water treatments. There is plenty of information on Wikipedia to get you started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment

And this is some interesting news from a medical database:

Vet Parasitol. 2008 Feb 13; : 18355965 (P,S,E,B,D)

Effects of ozone and ultraviolet radiation treatments on the infectivity of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts.

[My paper] Aurélien Dumètre, Caroline Le Bras, Maxime Baffet, Pascale Meneceur, J P Dubey, Francis Derouin, Jean-Pierre Duguet, Michel Joyeux, Laurent Moulin
Centre de recherche d’expertise et de contrôle des eaux de Paris, 144 Avenue Paul Vaillant-Couturier, 75014 Paris, France.

Clinical toxoplasmosis in humans has been epidemiologically linked to the consumption of drinking water contaminated by Toxoplasma gondii oocysts. We evaluated killing of T. gondii oocysts after ultraviolet (UV) or ozone treatments by bioassay in mice and/or cell culture. A 4-log inactivation of the oocyst/sporozoite infectivity was obtained for UV fluences >20mJcm(-2). In contrast, oocysts were not inactivated by ozone with an exposure (Ct) up to 9.4mgminl(-1) in water at 20 degrees C. In conclusion, UV treatment can be an effective disinfection method to inactivate T. gondii oocysts in drinking water, but ozone did not show promise in this research.

I am chemically sensitive and just went through a huge rigamarole trying to find kitty litter I could tolerate. What I discovered is that clearly the manufacturers do not have to label the litter for ingredients or even tell you if there is a fragrance in it. I cannot tolerate the pine; I tried the wheat which was labeled "organic" but had a very strong smell that bothered me- maybe they pumped up the natural wheat smell with added fragrances? can wheat really smell that strong on its own? I had similar concerns about corn so didn't buy it, and ended up with the only litter in the store labeled fragrance free and which actually disclosed its ingredients: 100% bentonite clay. I avoided clay litter before I became sensitive because of the dust but felt that I could not find another option that was truly fragrance free at the store. How about regulations to force manufacturers to disclose all ingredients in kitty litter? Then it is easier for us to make informed choices. I really liked the recycled paper recipe, maybe if I have some free time on my hands I will try that out, Thanks for the information.

About toxoplasmosis, your cats should be indoor cats to begin with, outdoor cats wreck local eco-systems. Then, you won't have to worry about the bacteria, but I think wastewater treatment places can cope with it just fine if they don't DUMP CRUD INTO THE SEA which is probably what happened in California. People get toxoplasmosis from food all the time and don't even know it unless they have other complications that make it worse. So they are using the toilet and spreading this vile bacteria all over and everyone is fine. It's the reprehensible conduct of the wastewater treatment facility that should be blamed, not cat poo in the toilet!

I have five indoor only cats and one small dog. We use Bear Mountain wood stove pellets for all of them, with eight litter boxes. I pay $4.44 for 40 pounds of the wood pellets saving a lot of money. I might use, less than one bag per month. There are no toxins, binders or fillers in the pellets. They are made from the sawdust left over after the sawmills process the Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar here in Oregon. So it is really a local product for me which is right up my alley. There is no smell which is impressive. I take the poo out daily and then twice a week I use a large kitty scoop to shake the sawdust out putting the pellets back in. As the cats go potty on the pellets it breaks down into sawdust so cleaning the litter boxes is no problem. You just shake it out.With the poo taken out I add the sawdust to my compost piles (I have very large gardens). Sawdust is often used to compost with. When you put the pellets into the boxes you don't want to put much in as it swells. The pellets break down to a nice soft cushion for the cats, but they don't mind the pellets at all.

I have been using World's Best for several years. It is, as others have said, corn-based. While it costs a bit more than other litters, I have found that, with one cat, one small bag lasts almost a month. Also, there is less of an odor than there is with anything else I've ever tried.

In trying to be environmentally friendly and not strain further the compromised immune systems of our two rescue cats, we've used both World's Best and Nature's Miracle Cat Litter. Both are corn-cob based, clump well for easy scooping and have good odor control (we only fill to about 1 inch, scoop daily and change weekly). We have one nuetered male cat who is extremely picky about his bathroom habits, and he takes readily to both. The low dust also does not irritate our cats' sentive respiratory systems. Our hope is also that the corn cob (rather than clay, etc.) will also lessen the impact on our dog's digestive system, as he, as disgusting as it is, does sneak an occassional treat of kitty rocca!

I also wonder about Nature's Miracle products... litter and cleaning products. They say that use all natural enzymatic ingredientss-- is this stuff safe?

My city says you can put cat litter in the green bin (organic waste). Does this mean it's being put in the municipal compost? If my 2 cats are indoor cats (i.e. low risk of toxoplasmosis), can I continue to do this? Thanks, Christina

Never "flush" litter, if your home uses a septic system. Don't use a garbage disposal either.

With all the recent food shortages around the world, is it moral to use wheat and corn for litter? or are these made with by-products of the edible parts?