Poop and Plastic

(I know- yucky title)
Several months ago I got one of those emails that warn you about the evils of plastic grocery store bags. You know I have a little bit of a hippie in me. For most of our groceries we use our cloth bags. I believe in natural childbirth, breastfeeding, recycling. When practical I try to buy more organic and locally grown food. We use those energy saving light bulbs and we insulated the attic. I turn off my computer at night. I unplug my cell phone charger when it is not in use. I wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat. We are going to put up a clothes line this summer to cut down on the dryer usage. I have strong feelings about disposable diapers.
I think everyone is crazy to think wrapping up fecal matter in something that won’t degrade for 500 years that will pollute our ground water is better than washing cloth diapers. Today cloth diapers are easy to use, wash and reuse. They are soft absorbent and help children transition to potty training easier than disposables. I am disgusted with day care and so called experts that say that disposables are better and more sanitary. Poop is poop weather you wrap it up and put it in the trash or shake it out and flush it down to toilet. Poop is full of “germs” that can make people sick weather it is washed away in the laundry or forgotten in a landfill. In the toilet and the laundry the waste water is flushed to the sewage treatment plant. At the treatment plant they treat everyone’s waste water including yours. Yes including your poop too. The do whatever it is that they do to make it safe again. I just can’t figure out how people think that throwing poop in the landfill is cleaner. I really can’t get how wrapping up poop in plastic is better.
This leads me to the issue of the kitty litter and plastic bags. It has always bothered me that we scoop the kitty litter into plastic grocery store bags and throw it away. I just can’t come up with a way to dispose of kitty litter in a better way. I considered using paper lunch sacks so at least the bag would break down. But that still means that poop is being placed in the landfill and then there is the tree issue when using paper bags. Yesterday I watched a TV show with Bill Nye (yes the science guy) and he said what I already knew- that kitty litter is bad. But some of his reasons were different from mine the clay that is in the litter is strip mined. The thing that makes the litter so absorbent doesn’t break down and that means the excrement doesn’t break down as it should either. I did a little research today and it seems that the in the usual litter is toxic and can cause health problems for people and pets. So then I was thinking what about flushable litter. Well, there is no reliable way to flush cat poop. The clay stops up drains and the expensive flushable litter is still not flushable according to plumbers. So what is a hippie girl to do?
If the cat were in the “wild” it would of course use litter box of the great outdoors, so I guess I could try changing our litter to a composting variety but I am still faced with paper or plastic when the litter is scooped.