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It seems like half of my trash some weeks is cat clumps. Is there any way to naturally dispose of used cat litter without killing my yard destroying my woods? We use the clumping kind.

AndyMan said:

It seems like half of my trash some weeks is cat clumps. Is there any way to naturally dispose of used cat litter without killing my yard destroying my woods? We use the clumping kind.

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Join the club, we too have too much of it but I don't know a way to get rid of it, short of tossing it into the trash bin.

Toss it into a compost pile ... it will break down and make good mix with other compost-ables...
If you are in town and don't have space, that may be a problem... :smile:KennyV

We don't have cats, but my friends who do just toss it into the garbage. I'm afraid that no one really wants to deal with the cat litter mess.

I compost mine, I figure the ammonia can't be worse than the chicken or other manure that is in there. My mix of compost seems to work well for my plants.

I also mix it into my compost pile and have been doing that for years with no problems. If you don't have a compost pile, then I would suggest finding a spot in your yard where you can bury it and mix it into the soil.

I had no idea it was compostable. Somehow I thought compost was only edible vegetable waste. What other weird things can you compost? (I know about corn cobs and melon rinds, and not to throw in chicken bones.)

Rocky said:

I also mix it into my compost pile and have been doing that for years with no problems. If you don't have a compost pile, then I would suggest finding a spot in your yard where you can bury it and mix it into the soil.

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Let me get this straight...some of you use "USED" cat litter in a compost pile...:confused2: well how many of you use the compost produced on your garden for veggie crops, or on flowers? MY step mom is a master gardener, I am going to run this topic through her (pun intended) and get the straight poop (pun intended again) on how practical this is, and on whether it is a health hazard.

For those who have a compost pile, do you also use USED doggie doo, or if you are so fixated on the subject, simply take a dump on the pile yourself, hopefully in the dead of night? :laughing:

JDgreen said:

Let me get this straight...some of you use "USED" cat litter in a compost pile...:confused2: well how many of you use the compost produced on your garden for veggie crops, or on flowers? MY step mom is a master gardener, I am going to run this topic through her (pun intended) and get the straight poop (pun intended again) on how practical this is, and on whether it is a health hazard.

For those who have a compost pile, do you also use USED doggie doo, or if you are so fixated on the subject, simply take a dump on the pile yourself, hopefully in the dead of night? :laughing:

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Oh Ooooo..
I guess I have been assuming with a name like JDgreen, you had a farming or AG type background... We use to have dairy and beef cattle... that is a source of THE BEST compost ingredient, next to chicken waste, we also had lots of chickens... FANTASTIC source of nitrogen for your compost pile...

Today with less actual productive farm animals around the next best ingredient is horse stall sourced...
sawdust woodshavings that are cleaned from horse stalls (daily) is also tremendious in a compost pile along with cat box litter (definitely used) and anything you dog or sasquach may leave behind... :smile:KennyV

I've been told that the horse manure is less effective when mixed with wood as the wood significantly reduces the amount of nitrogen produced.
I've also been instructed by the county extension service to avoid waste from dogs or cats. I've equated it to the diet, herbivoures good for compost /carnivoures bad for the compost. I have also been told that urinating on your compost pile will help to get it going.
Relatives from Germany used to talk about the human waste used on the fields as fertilizer in the early part of the last century. I was told that the produce had to be soaked for hours before eating to avoid sickness.
I could not offer any evdience or proof one way or they other on any of these claims. I personally will use horse manure in the compost after it has cured somewhat. I honestly could not say how it affects it.
Most of us are probably familiar with "milorganite", it is supposed to be safe for vegetable gardens but marketed as an inexpensive alternative for chemical fertilzers for use on turf grass and lawns. Milorganite is made from sewer sludge and has been used for a long time.

My wife says that her dad used to put sewer sludge on their garden at home, along with sawdust, leaves, yard clippings, and output from the wood chipper. They never put cat waste or dog waste in there.

This is getting to be quite the interesting topic...

AndyMan said:

It seems like half of my trash some weeks is cat clumps. Is there any way to naturally dispose of used cat litter without killing my yard destroying my woods? We use the clumping kind.

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I know little about cat litter. At first I thought I didn't have anything to contribute here but this thread keeps commong back.... Cat litter....who knew?
I've used it to asorb oil spills but never as it's intended use. I don't see why it should'nt be disposed of on the ground rather than be hauled off with the garbage. Where does your garbage end up?
I suppose it depends on what is in the cat litter. If you were to disperse it over the ground near your shurbs or flower beds or in the "woods" I can't see were it would be a problem. If your cat were to go outside it may be more likley to purge itself there rather than in your house. The less you handle the cat waste the better in my opinion.
If it were an issue for me I would read the lable trying to determine if there are any contents that would not belong on the ground and probably just toss it in with the mulch or somewhere else suitable.

This is just a thought but did anyone think about Reading the Warnings or notations on the bags, and it states Used Liter is NOT recommended for Garden use. Cat feces contain a parasite that can cause toxoplasmosis.
For those who would to know more visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis

Ric said:

This is just a thought but did anyone think about Reading the Warnings or notations on the bags, and it states Used Liter is NOT recommended for Garden use. Cat feces contain a parasite that can cause toxoplasmosis.
For those who would to know more visit Toxoplasmosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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I thought in the beginning of this thread, "SOMETHING ABOUT THE IDEA, STINKS"....:laughing:

Since you are in N.Y. and it is winter, use it on your walk way, drive way instead of sand.

This is an interesting subject, but what would be the difference of the cats or the like going in the garden or using the litter in the garden. The parasites only live for so long so after a bit of rot it should be fine for the garden.

Honey said:

This is an interesting subject, but what would be the difference of the cats or the like going in the garden or using the litter in the garden. The parasites only live for so long so after a bit of rot it should be fine for the garden.

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I think the problem arises when the garden is used for vegetables. To some people if it doesn't have vegetables...is not a garden.

Honey said:

... what would be the difference of the cats or the like going in the garden or using the litter in the garden. The parasites only live for so long so after a bit of rot it should be fine for the garden.

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Very good point honey... and there is not anything keeping cats out of vegetable gardens or flower gardens... or most anyplace.
I think most folks would be a bit squeamish if they knew the ingredient of most fertilizers:laughing: especially organic fertilizers... KennyV

Honey said:

This is an interesting subject, but what would be the difference of the cats or the like going in the garden or using the litter in the garden. The parasites only live for so long so after a bit of rot it should be fine for the garden.

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Ingestion of contaminated cat feces. This can occur through hand-to-mouth contact following gardening, cleaning a cat's litter box contact with children's sandpits, or touching leach, and can survive in the environment for over a year. It is, however, susceptible to high temperatures above 66 degrees Celsius (150 degrees Fahrenheit), and is thus killed by thorough cooking, and would be killed by 24 hours in a typical domestic freeze

KennyV said:

Very good point honey... and there is not anything keeping cats out of vegetable gardens or flower gardens... or most anyplace.
I think most folks would be a bit squeamish if they knew the ingredient of most fertilizers:laughing: especially organic fertilizers... KennyV

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Yea maybe most folks would be a bit squeamish if they knew the ingredients of most fertilizers especially organic fertilizers, but I can tell you they use nothing in fertilizers or organic fertilizers that comes from any carnivorous animal.

I suppose there are risks to using any type of fertilizer, but what I pit on my flowers and my veggies are 2 different things. I am very particular to what I put on my consumables because I like to be able to munch straight from the garden, however, things do grow well in the compost pile, squash have grown there as well as tomatoes from seeds that were in there already.

I was at the grocery store yesterday and saw flushable. I wonder what type of repercussions it would have on your septic system if any. It says it is safe, but I definitely wonder.

I hate the sight of cat litter so I get a spot where I dispose them off. My assumption was this is not degradable and the thought of mixing this with compost has never crossed my mind.