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Soil, Compost & Mulch

What to do with unused kitty litter

blaise_belovedbasset

15 years ago

I have half a bag of unused kitty litter - the granular kind, not the clumping bentonite clay kind - and I am at a loss as to what to do with it. I don't want to just throw it in the garbage. Do you think it would provide any benefit or do any harm if mixed into compst/soil/coffee ground mixtures in an outdoor planter or in my lasagana beds? Any other suggestions as to what to do with it? I've considered donating it our animal shelter, but I think they use clumping litter.

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Comments (7)

digdirt2
15 years ago
Makes great traction on ice in the winter and can be used to sop up all kinds of spills in the garage. Got an oil leak? Scatter some on top, let it sit a bit and then just sweep it up.

Otherwise, it's just clay basically so scatter it around in the soil.

Dave
joepyeweed
15 years ago
You may be able to donate it to a animal shelter / cat rescue group? Or do you have a friend who has a cat?
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With the wildlife I have that visits my yard who leave their droppings etc. I lack concern about putting the used heavily urinated litter around my plants. Last night once again I was left with gifts on my patio. Most of those articles while they are correct that body waste can contain things that do go into the ground water they have not done any research in ways household garbage is handled including bagged kitty litter. In this area at least it is put into big mounds and compacted. You can frequently see trenches or drainage ponds to hold the liquid from the rain that washes through the mound. Those drainage ponds are allowed to seep into the ground or evaporate until they are full of particles. At that time they are either capped with dirt or dug out and the solid materials taken elsewhere. For a while those solid particles were spread on a field as an experiment to see what grew best. They no longer do that as it was discovered it concentrated heavy metals of various sort. So the short of this is that the kitty litter will eventually enter the ground water which is what most are concerned about.
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Kimmsr
15 years ago
I doubt that your animal shelter would care that this donation of free litter clumped or not. Whether this is something you would want to add to your soil or not would depend on what type os soil you have. If what you have is clay this is probably not something you would want to add, but if sand there is that possibilty that you could.
albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
15 years ago
In Alaska we used it on icy steps. I keep half a bag in the garage to pour on spills.
bob64
15 years ago
Use it to soak up oil spills and leaks. I have seen mechanics do just that.
Belgianpup
15 years ago
Beware of using underfoot if it will get wet. That stuff is slippery! Kimmsr is right: if you have sandy soil, add it either to your compost or to your soil.

If you have clay soil, you could probably offer it on your local FreeCycle.

Sue
Kimmsr
15 years ago
Yes, that Kitty Litter material is tha same as the material sold to soak up oil, but it is more expensive that the stuff to soak up oil so do not buy any Kitty Litter for that purpose and instead if you are going to soiak up oil buy the stuff packaged to do that (soak up oil) which will be much less expensive.

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