How Do You Know If You’re Buying Something “Green”?
It’s becoming very trendy to buy green, or in other words, buy stuff that’s good for the environment. But how do you know if you’re buying green or not? And don’t environmentally friendly products tend to be more expensive?
Not to worry. Buying green is easy if you do a bit of research and there are great products out there that are good for the environment, easy to use and reasonably priced. Look for products that are:
– Non-toxic
– Ozone-friendly
– Produce less waste
– Biodegradable/compostable
– Recyclable
– Made with renewable resources
– Made with renewable energy
Looking for these buzzwords on packaging is a great place to start if you’re trying to be more environmentally friendly. You can make this change with almost everything you buy – from food to clothing to household goods. Even pet supplies!
Believe it or not, there are some brands of cat litter and cat food that are better for the environment than others. For instance, some packaging may not be biodegradable or recyclable and some brands practice carbon offset activities, like planting trees, in order to reduce their carbon footprints (which is the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted due to the consumption of fossil fuels by a particular person, group, etc.)
What Makes the Litter Champ Environmentally Friendly?
It’s not just food and litter that you want to buy green, but also supplies like cat litter disposal systems. The Litter Champ boasts numerous economically friendly advantages that not all systems have.
The Biodegradable Liners
The Litter Champ contains a continuous liner that can last up to 3 months per cat and can hold about 4 gallons of waste. That alone tells you it’s no contest between the Litter Champ liner and those flimsy plastic bags most people use. The Litter Champ liners are made of high density polyethylene resin. In only 5 years, these liners will biodegrade when put underground or in a landfill, so you can feel good about buying them.
Buying a biodegradable product means that your carbon footprint will be reduced by leaps and bounds. Just imagine 3 months worth of cat litter disposal waste from a single cat household: between 90 plastic bags taking at least 500 years to break down and 1 liner taking 5 years to break down, which would you choose?
Kicking Plastic Bags to the Curb
In short, the Litter Champ eliminates the need for plastic bags altogether as far as cat litter disposal goes. Most cat owners tend to just scoop the used litter and feces into plastic shopping bags, tie them off and toss them away. Given that most people empty their litter box once or twice a day, that’s a minimum of 7 bags a week and 365 bags a year! And that’s only for one home. Given that cats are the most popular household pet in America, the number of plastic bags we must use to toss cat poop as a national would be astronomical.
What does this mean for the environment and why should you care? Plastic shopping bags do not decompose naturally in a short period of time like organic material does. For instance, a banana peel in a landfill only takes about 3-4 weeks to decompose. Plastic bags are made of polyethylene plastic, a man-made polymer that microorganisms don’t recognize as food and therefore don’t break down when tossed in a landfill like a banana peel would.
However, polyethene does photodegrade. This means that over time, sunlight can make the polymer chains brittle and they will start to crack and break apart at the molecular level. So eventually, the bags will fragment into teeny tiny microscopic granules. That may sound like the end of the problem, but this process can take between 500 and 1,000 years! That’s a lot of banana peels.
Thankfully, the Litter Champ eliminates the necessity of plastic bags for cat litter disposal altogether. The Litter Champ liners break down 100 times faster than plastic bags do, which is a relief because some cities in America have begun banning plastic grocery bags as it is. Litter Champ liners are the perfect alternative.
So just how “green” is the Litter Champ in the end?
1. The Litter Champ is non-toxic, it has a lock that will keep pets and small children from getting into the unit.
2. The Litter Champ is ozone-friendly because the double-sealed unit and the bags combined decrease the amount methane gas that can escape from the waste.
3. The elimination of plastic grocery bags and the continuous liner means less waste over time; you only throw away what you use.
4. The liners are completely biodegradable, compostable and are cheaper yet stronger than the competition.
5. The unit is recyclable in that you can use as a multi-purpose trash can if you don’t need it for kitty litter anymore.
6. Continuously going outside to toss full bags can let cold hair into your home in the winter months which will require more energy to heat your home.
7. Spillage from plastic grocery bags mean you may be vacuuming much more than you would like.
The Litter Champ is one of the smartest, safest and most reasonably priced options out there, if you’re trying to make your cat litter disposal habits more environmentally friendly.