So I like to think that as an individual I’m pretty good to the environment. I don’t have a car: that’s the big one. I recycle bottles and cans and paper, always. And I live in a small apartment so that could mean less heat required in winter, fewer light bulbs, etc. That last one could be bullshit but it doesn’t really matter.
Then sometime last year I started hearing stuff about how having a cat is really bad for the environment. Like you need 5 million hectares of land to grow the grain to feed the cows that become the food of a single cat for a year, even if the cat food’s made of chicken. I’m too lazy to look it up, you go try if you want. Also that kitty litter is totally bad too because it’s gathered via strip mining, and it’s got bad cancer-causing stuff in it, and disposing of it does really bad stuff to fish or some such thing. I’m not gonna look all that up either, I’m tired, the fucking cat started attacking me in bed at 5 am this morning.
(By the way, the Wikipedia page for kitty litter is full of win. People need to see two pictures of cats taking a dump so that they’re assured it’s not just an aberration.)
Screw Mother Nature, I’m keeping my cat. If only to get back at her for this morning, but it’s the principle of the thing. This sucks, though, I don’t want to have to be mean to the planet just for Shebang’s sake, I’d rather do it on purpose in a big way, like BP.
Alternative kitty litter would be an option except for the fact that I don’t have a car to go drive to the big pet marts to go get it (see? Society doesn’t want me to be ecologically friendly). Safeway just has the regular clay stuff and possibly the weird crystal type that may be better for the environment but its scifi appearance worries me. I think some friends of mine use wood pellets or something, and a brave few have managed to teach their cats to use the toilet, but I don’t have that level of dedication, and I’m equally doubtful of my cat.
I think @gusgreeper linked to this video earlier this week: a commercial for litter made out of whole kernel corn.
I don’t care what you’re selling, if you pass me a beaker and ask me if it smells like cat urine I’m not going to sniff it. You sniff it, you litter-eating weirdo.
Seems it’s a real company, no really. This is the first time I’ve heard of corn being used; I’d be curious how good it is as litter. Not enough to do a sniff test on TV, though, fuck.
So corn is biodegradable, what with it being corn, so maybe it’s better for the environment but then aren’t we already raping the earth with corn production already? And killing everyone with high fructose corn syrup and stuff too. Though that last one’s probably a good thing for the earth in the long run.
I switched to this stuff several months ago. Works really really well. Doesn’t smell of cat pee at all. However, it DOES smell a bit of corn. Or wheat. Or something like that. Flushes down the toilet with zero problems. Hmmm, and dusty. Very dusty.
Does last a long time though. Like the one bag lasted 4 or 5 weeks. Just scoop each day and good to go. Too much coffee this morning and i’m not overly coherent, ping me if you have more questions.
A friend of mine once gave me a great piece of advice. If someone says, “Hey, smell this,” then don’t.
We tried the corn stuff, it seemed weird and annoying. This comment is not scientifically accurate.
I fail to see how processed bits of clay, dug out of the ground, are less environmentally friendly than processed industrial corn, genetically modified and full of pesticides.
My dad once had a gig evaluating a bentonite mine. The stuff is just a kind of clay, and it exists in hundred gigaton quantities. It’s used for a LOT of applications, only one of which is kitty litter. It’s not even very “processed”. Digging it out of the ground, letting it dry out, letting cats crap in it, then burying it again, is much less energy-wasting and stuff-wasting than processing silica gel or, god help us, growing *corn*, to make kitty litter.
Yeah, comparing the environmental damage of various forms of litter is probably like comparing apples to oranges to zucchini. Each is bad in its own way, and it’s hard to quantify different types of pollution. Sigh. Wish I could stop my cat from crapping altogether.