I use wood pellets for heating my residence, and I know someone that was using the same wood pellets as kitty liter. They lived in downtown Oneonta, and they were just throwing out the clumps as needed, and maybe changing the whole litter once in a while. Pellet bags (40lbs) are around $5, and I would assume that's a cheap and very easily compostable method. It's only compressed wood, and when it's wet at all it breaks down into sawdust and clumps together. Hope that info helps.
Andy Goodell 1894 Charlotte Creek Road Oneonta, NY 13820 (603) 831-0356 http://geekguyandy.com -----Original Message----- From: Thomas Shelley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 7:00 PM To: Sustainable Tompkins County listserv; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [SustainableTompkins] waste reduction experiment re kitty litter Dear Friends--I am embarking on a waste reduction experiment involving kitty litter. My wife and I have 5 cats, not that we necessarily wanted 5 cats, but they came our way. The problem is the cost of disposing of the kitty litter. Waste disposal in the City of Ithaca, as many of you are probably painfully ware, is REALLY expensive. We recycle most of what we dispose of via the TC Solid Waste pick up program or drop-off programs and compost as much of our organic waste as possible. Probably 90 percent recycling/composting and 10 percent or less residue of non-kitty litter waste; only 14 pounds this past week. The latter is mostly paper that is not recyclable or easily compostable in the home compost, plastic that is not recyclable, adhesive contaminated bits and pieces, metal bits that are not easily recyclable, etc. With the small amount of "residue" waste we generate we would use less that one "small" City of Ithaca trash tag each week ($2.00, now, I think). The problem is kitty litter. We have to collect cat waste as our cats don't roam outside. We have been using the clay-based litter, which is the lease expensive type of litter. But it is very heavy. This week I put out 53 pounds of used kitty litter along with the 14 pounds of "residue" waste mentioned above. 79 percent litter and 21 percent "residue" (after recycling and composting). For the kitty litter alone this costs $8.00 per week, or $400 per year with the pretty new "large" trash tags that cost $4.00 (!!!!) each. Yikes! This is NOT sustainable, especially since my we are trying to down size our expenses heading into retirement. Getting rid of the cats is not an option. So I am considering ways to compost kitty litter. A couple of colleagues on these lists have pointed me to some of the new organic-based litter brands that are supposedly compostable. There are now kitty litters based on old news print, which have been around for some time, wheat, and waste pine wood. None of them are very light, with the newspaper brand(s) probably the heaviest and also probably the least compostable. The newer wheat-based and pine wood types are supposedly compostable and "flushable". Nothing, however, is flushable in a 110 plus year old sewage system, so that is out. There have been experiments in verimculture that look quite promising. See for example: http://www.composters.com/vermiculture-worms/pet-poo-converter_53_4.php I'm not certain that this would go over well in the City? I don' have the indoor space, either, so this would only work in warm weather. Another problem is that kitty litter compost can't be used on human food crops unless it is processed in a high-temperature commercial compost system that would kill all of the pathogenic bacteria. But if it could be composted, even with the higher cost of the wheat/pine-based litters, the reduction in trash tag costs would be worth the effort. So this overly long post brings me to my question. Does anyone on this list that lives in the country have any fallow land, away from the house and such, where I could try to compost the organic-based, used kitty litter. The compost could probably be used for ornamentals or trees or other non-human food crops. If anyone is interested in such an experiment please let me know. I am also going to see if Cayuga Compost is interested, but they charge a fee for their collection bins, even if they were interested. Thanks for listening and have a wonderful day. Tom Tom Shelley 118 E. Court St. Ithaca, NY 14850 607 342-0864 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.myspace.com/99319958 P I thank you for printing this e-mail only if it is necessary "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The World Commission on Environment and Development, Gro Harlem Brundtland Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, 1987 MY NOTE: Sustainable development does not mean "sustainable growth" as growth per se is not sustainable. And the term "sustainable" has to mean "for a very long time" (A. Bartlett). "The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives." Sioux proverb _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
