Many of the decisions we make that relate to caring for our pets also have an impact on the environment. One of these decisions is made easier by the plethora of eco-conscious options that are available.

If you are still using traditional clay cat litter, consider these things:

• Clay litter is not bio-degradable. Each year, over 2 million tons of cat litter ends up in U.S. landfills, most of it non-biodegradable.
• Clay is non-renewable and is obtained by open-pit mining (sometimes referred to as strip-mining)
• Non-clumping cat litter is often made of zeolite or diatomite
• There are some concerns about the safety of sodium bentonite, used in clumping cat litter, especially for kittens. You can read a summary of the concerns and the various perspectives here.

So if you want to switch to a more environmentally friendly cat litter, how do you know which one to use? To a large extent it comes down to personal preference: yours and your cats’.

I’ve been fortunate in that my cats haven’t been too picky about litter, and have been willing to use every type of litter I’ve brought home. I, on the other hand, haven’t been that thrilled with most of the options. For me, it usually comes down to two things. One is how well the litter holds up without being changed or even scooped for days at a time. The other is how much dust is spewed into the air when I fill or scoop out the litter box.

Now I need to confess that although I have 4 cats, I don’t change the litter anywhere near daily. But this has never kept my cats (or various fosters who have been integrated into the main part of the house from time to time) from using the boxes appropriately. And none of them has ever seemed annoyed that a box wasn’t clean enough. I have several large litter boxes for them to use, which are actually those big plastic underbed storage boxes (sans lids).

One of my favorite litters for a long time was Citramax. It was made with dried citrus, smelled great when fresh and could go a week even without scooping before smelling bad. And even the bad smell wasn’t as unpleasant as the typical cat urine smell. It was in failry large, bark-sized pieces so there was no problem with dust. At one point they changed it so it had much smaller pieces, I’m guessing because people were turned off by it being so different from traditional litter. But this change was accompanied by such a huge problem with dust when I poured it into the litter box that it was quickly losing its appeal, and then it went off the market altogether. I still miss my Citramax.

I’ve tried the pellet-type litters, both pine and recycled paper versions, but I haven’t been satsified with either one. The odor control in my experience is minimal, certainly not good enough considering it’s not clumpable and isn’t that easy to scoop out.

I tried Swheat Scoop, which is made from wheat, but again the odor control just wasn’t up to my standards. So I struggled for a while, alternating between Arm & Hammer, which works really well and is fairly natural but still clay, and various alternative litters.

I have now settled upon World’s Best Cat Litter. It’s made from corn cobs, it’s not dusty, it doesn’t track much (though one of my kids insists on kicking some litter out of the box as part of his routine no matter which type I use!), and it does a great job controlling odor. For some reason the regular version seems to perform better than the maximum-strength version. I also like that the regular version is more of a yellow color, rather than the ugly grey of typical litters and the extra-strength version.

One brand I’ve just learned about is Ami EcoSand. The company claims that it is “entirely made of natural plant material” (I can find no specifics on what type of plant), 100% bio-degradable, eco-sustainable, clumpable and flushable. If anyone has tried it please post your comments here!

At any rate, if you’re looking to try a more environmentally friendly cat litter, you’ve got plenty of options! Post here about your favorites and your experiences.