Go Green with Eco-Friendly Cat Litter

When you have cats sharing your life, cat litter becomes a necessity. Clay cat litter isn’t a pleasant subject for cat lovers. It is heavy, time- consuming, dusty and expensive. Hauling large bags of litter in the house, pouring it, scooping it and disposing of it becomes a major chore.

Conventional kitty litter consists of filler mixed with clay. The filler for the clay litter is silica. Silica is the most common mineral form of a rock and is used in everything from making skin cream to making glass. Silica’s main purpose is to maintain freshness. Ironically, silica gel is not eco-friendly after being extracted from rock and processed, and silica is a known cancer-agent. Adding to the danger of using cat litter in your home, cat litter becomes equally toxic out of the home when it lands in the landfills. According to a Bureau of Waste Management survey, over eight-billion pounds of kitty litter is dumped into landfills each year. To put that number in perspective, there are only four-billion pounds of disposable diapers dumped in landfills each year. Both items wreck havoc on the planet, the cat litter just does damage quicker because there is more of it and very little of that eight-billion pounds consist of eco-friendly cat litter.

So what is the alternative for cat lovers when it seems that clay litter both clumping and non-clumping are holding on to the majority of sales within the cat industry?  Kitty lovers need to “Go Green and search for eco-friendly cat litter. To help you in your search, here is a list of eco-friendly alternatives:

• Yesterday’s News- Purina backs this cat litter made from recycled newspaper. Also offers the first recyclable cat litter bag.
• Pet Ecology Perfect Cat Litter- lighter than conventional litter, flushable and low tracking.
• EnviroKats Litter System- made from 100% recycled material and is also re-usable.
• Feline Pine- made from 100% natural materials. Claims to be the #1 seller of eco-friendly cat litter and destroy odors.
• Cat Country Cat Litter- a special blend of wheatgrass fibers worked by an organic chemist to stop odors.
• Swheat Scoop- made of natural wheat fibers, clumping litter that destroys odor.
• World’s Best Cat Litter- made from corn, clumping eco-friendly cat litter that destroys odor.
• ExquisitCat- This is Petsmart’s generic brand of eco-friendly cat litter.
• Nature’s Miracle Cat Litter- made by the fine folks of Nature’s Miracle, this litter controls and destroys odors and is friendly to the earth.

Today, the cat litter industry giants contract out to companies who strip-mine minerals from the earth and put them together so you can fill your cat litter pan with clay litter, clumping litter or even just plain sand. For the eco-friendly cat litter proponents, they are working tirelessly to provide your cat with the same sensation that he is used to when he jumps into the litter pan of clay litter with their brands, while erasing the dangers associated with most commercial brands. In the following weeks, the Miller kitties will put these individual litters to the test. The results will be put on our Product Review page exploring the pros and cons of each litter. Stay tuned for the results of the Miller Kitties on the Go.

For more information please see the  reviews on eco-friendly cat litter