Creative Commons photo by Flickr user visualpanic

The Claim

All-natural wood- and corn-based cat litter is a better, greener alternative to traditional clay cat litter. Not only is it biodegradable, but pet owners can flush kitty’s mess down the toilet without getting the guilty conscience that comes with adding a plastic bag per day to already overflowing landfills. But could cat poop pose an even bigger environmental problem when flushed?

The Investigation

Each year, cat owners in the United States alone trash over two million tonnes of clay cat litter, almost all of which is dumped into plastic bags and shipped to landfills. Even worse, clay litter is largely derived from strip mining, a disruptive industrial process that literally strips the earth’s top layer to reach underlying seams of clay. No wonder eco-minded pet owners prefer litter made out of scrap pine or newspaper pellets.

Unfortunately, they may be clearing their conscience prematurely. Sure, flushable litter won’t gunk up your pipes like clay litter might, but the cat feces we flush is contributing to the infection and death of all kinds of sea life.

Cat poop can contain a dangerous parasite called Toxoplasma gondii that causes a disease called toxoplasmosis. Only cats that have come in contact with infected birds and mice will carry the disease, but infection rates for outdoor cats are high. And when we flush infected waste, the parasite threatens ocean and sea life—the parasites are resilient, and typical water purification plants won’t destroy them.

Though researchers are still determining the extent of toxoplasma’s deadly nature, sea otters appear to be vulnerable. Studies in Morro Bay, California, showed that 16 percent of infected otters died of the disease. Dr. Melissa Miller, a senior wildlife veterinarian with the California Department of Fish and Game, says the bulk of the concern, however, isn’t coming from flushable litter. When cats defecate outside, rain can wash the parasite downstream and affect all kinds of aquatic wildlife.

The verdict

If kitty doesn’t go outside, and eats commercial cooked cat food—and not an infected bird or mouse—her poop should be safe to flush. Even so, says Miller, (who owns three cats herself), the best place to toss cat poop is with your weekly garbage. Compostable litter is the best choice in that case—and try compostable garbage bags for good measure.

1. Create your own “pure” water by investing in an at-home water filtration system. Get a water-quality report from your municipality to see if there are any contaminants you need to be aware of (usually only an issue in rural settings) and to find out whether you need a point-of-entry unit that will filter all water before it’s distributed through your house, or a smaller unit that treats water once it’s out of the faucet.

2. Pick up a stainless-steel water bottle to carry that tap water in. With the safety of reusable plastic bottles in question for containing bisphenol A (BPA), a suspected hormone disruptor and carcinogen, it’s time to ditch that “indestructible” Nalgene bottle in favour of a shiny, metal version. Bring it everywhere.

3. Pass on overpriced bottled water when you’re out to eat and request a glass of free ice water instead. No need to be afraid: Canadian tap water is more rigorously screened than the bottled stuff.

4. Lobby to make tap water more convenient. Contact your city council and ask to have more drinking fountains and water spigots installed around town.

5. Create a bottled-water-free bubble at your school or office. On World Water Day in March, 2008, the Polaris Institute launched a campaign to discourage bottled water use on Canadian campuses in an attempt to reject the commodification of one of the world’s most precious resources. Visit PolarisInstitute.org for more details and talk to your powers above to create your own tap-water-only zone.

6. Donate your autograph to the cause. Head over to Article31.org and sign a petition asking the United Nations to declare access to potable water a human right.

7. Do the math. A litre of tap water in most Canadian municipalities costs less than a tenth of a cent, whereas a litre of bottled water can cost $1 or more. The switch should be a no-brainer.

Are reusable menstrual cups really better for the environment than tampons and pads?

The Claim

DivaCup is a reusable, silicone menstrual cup that claims to be an “environmentally responsible” product that is the “most clean and convenient method of feminine hygiene protection.” But how green can the manmade silicone product be?

The Investigation

DivaCup, like other brands of reusable menstrual cups, works by collecting menstrual flow in a small, internally placed cup. This cup is emptied and washed out throughout a woman’s cycle, then sterilized by boiling and put away for next month. According to the makers of DivaCup, which is the only Health Canada approved reusable menstrual cup, one cup will last a woman an entire year (and some users say a cup can be used for much longer), and that, they argue, is one reason why this product is so environmentally friendly.

The company’s clearly onto something. Each year, 12 billion conventional pads and 7 million tampons, made out of plastics, rayon, viscose, and cotton, are dumped into the North American environment. These products have been bleached with chlorine, which releases carcinogenic dioxins into the environment, and most use non-organic cotton, which has been saturated in pesticides and insecticides. Cotton is also considered to be the world’s “thirstiest crop,” requiring six pints of water to grow just one little bud.

While DivaCup is made from silicone, the same synthetic substance found in everything from cosmetics to cars, silicone looks pretty green compared to what goes into conventional menstrual products.

Dr. Michael Brook, a silicone expert at McMaster University, says that because silicone is derived from silica, a type of sand, it will slowly degrade back to that material. “The safety record of silicones is exemplary, and unlike many materials used in commerce, there is a lot of data available to permit such a statement to be made.”

The Verdict:

There’s no “greenwashing” going on here; DivaCup lives up to its claims and truly is a green alternative to conventional feminine hygiene products. While there might be an initial yuck factor, for most women, a reusable menstrual cup is an environmentally and economically healthy choice when dealing with their once-a-month friend.