As a cat owner it had never really occurred to me that there might be a more environmentally friendly way to handle the issue of cat litter. Like the majority of the feline friendly households I purchase the traditional gravel clumping cat litter and with the daily changes of her box we go through about 15 lbs of the gravel litter per month not to mention the packaging in which it is contained. Over the course of the year that’s nearly 200 pounds of litter wrapped into newspaper and then taken out to the trash from a one cat household! According to research gravel cat litter and associated waste makes up the third most common item in terms of bulk in landfills, falling behind only diapers and newspapers. Apparently about 8 billion pounds of cat litter winds up as landfill per year in the US.

John King of Arizona has started an eco-friendly cat litter company called Envirokats; he proclaimed it to be litter box system that will never have to be replaced using ground-up tires as the litter. He came upon the idea when disposing of old tires from his vehicle, when informed of the $2.50 disposal fee per tire he asked some questions and found out that the parent company was processing 300,000 pounds of old used tires daily. Most of these are being ground up and sold in the manufacture of asphalt and playground flooring. He wondered what else could be done with the rubber and came up with cat litter. The rubber chips are 100% reusable according to King and can be washed out daily as needed. The entire kit sold online comes with approximately 18 pounds of tire chips and the plastic container for them. The container includes a release valve for washing down as needed. When cleaning the box, solid matter will be scooped out the dangers the rubber chips to be sprayed down with water and then flushing out the residue via the drain valve.

King has also advised that as the litter is made exclusively from carbon-based materials it naturally absorbs the smell, equally important the product has been tested with various cats to ensure they use it which hasn’t presented any problems. In addition to the reduction of hundreds of pounds of waste just think of the annual cost savings if this product works well for you. Last but not least all of the gravel needed for traditional litter has to be strip mined from the natural environment. While it may present a little bit of extra work for the cat owner it certainly saves a great deal environmentally. Please visit his website to learn more about EnviroKats.