One pet peeve...

[labelleizzy]

Small pet peeve. Heh. I made a pun there, you'll see...

I like to think of myself as someone who strives to be "green", you know, environmentally friendly. I recycle, I upcycle, I buy used, I fix and repair my broken stuff when I can.

However. I get clay litter for the cats' litter boxes.
I know that's not terrifically green, but it's the litter they like and use well, and it's an easy clean-up for me... so.

Had this crazy idea a long time ago, of having a place that ISN'T the garbage, of everyone dumping their clay litter and allowing natural processes to return the clay to clay (yes it would smell to high heaven of ammonia for awhile, and would likely attract lots of flies at the beginning.)

Just, it seems to me that we should be able to use the clay again, even if it's just for a primary layer of a landfill... We spend so much energy and fossil fuels digging the clay out and processing it, packaging it and getting it to the stores and our homes, that dumping it straight in the trash seems like a real waste.

Cat owners? What do you think?

Comments

[desahra.livejournal.com]

I use wheat litter, but my cat's not picky about such things.

[anita-margarita.livejournal.com]

We are held hostage by the implacable whims of cats.

[aliyna.livejournal.com]

Hm! We too use clay (because my god, after using pine I was so monumentally sick and tired of finding tiny bits of sawdust from one end of the house to the other,) and this is a good thought. I wonder about several things, however, such as whether or not airborne or waterborne pathogens would be a concern, and oh my yes, it would stink to high heaven. I've read some about composting cat waste, though. I wonder what principles would cross over, there.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

Just, it seems to me that we should be able to use the clay again, even if it's just for a primary layer of a landfill...

I had had vaguely similar thoughts, although more towards leaving it in the landfill. One of the issues I have with recycling everything we possibly can is it means the landfills eventually only have highly toxic stuff and will take thousands of years before that land can be reused. A bit of biodegradable material might just allow small plants and shrubs to scrawnily grow on the surface in a century or so.

I remain on the fence, though. I recycle and reuse as much as I can but still cannot help but wonder if landfills will ever be reclaimable. Especially since for every one of us there's another person out there dumping batteries and old tech into their garbage.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I like wheat based litter. One can compost it, with adequate heat.

[inflectionpoint.livejournal.com]

This. And if one has a large enough pile and keeps it running correctly, one can get it hot enough to kill toxo spores.

One can even get a home pile hot enough to compost humanure, if one is sure it doesn't have yellow fever germs in it (those require -really- high heat.)

[anita-margarita.livejournal.com]

Actually, I did reuse litter for a good purpose. There is an old cottage on my property which had a redwood septic tank (yes, that is what they used to be made from). The cottage had not been lived in for 40 years and the redwood eventually decomposed, of course. I can't remember now just how and/or why the hole became exposed, but it did, which created, well, a big hole in the ground. So when I had kitty litter to dispose of, I walked it over to the hole and dumped it in. It took about a year but the hole is now filled up. It's far enough from my house that I couldn't smell it.

[eeyore42.livejournal.com]

Clay is one of the least harmful things to be putting into the landfill. Don't count on being able to recycle the clay into anything particularly useful or hygienic except as filler material.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Long ago I put a planter under thelitter box and grew some kidn of fernsh in it.Worked fine.

(I'm not drunk, LJ isn't showing teh letters in the commet box right.)

[cookie-chef.livejournal.com]

Interesting idea.

[annelaure.livejournal.com]

I have no cat, but I think it's a good idea :)

[grltalk.livejournal.com]

I have 3 cats and use clay litter. I never thought of doing something better with it than dumping it in the trash.