First a special Refractory ceramic based cat litter material would replace the conventional clay based cat litter. It would be useable in any standard litter box system including the self raking type.
The second part of this system would be a litter recycling unit. This machine would be based on a Fluidized bed sludge incineration system utilized in modern waste water treatment plants. The incinerator would have a series of air and gas nozzles arranged at the base of the furnace chamber. The used litter is placed into the chamber and the unit is closed. upon activation the gas and air would be turned on and this would create an intense heated fluidized bed allowing for the complete removal of all traces of ammonia and fecal material any ash and small particulates would be blown out the exhaust. The recylcled litter material is then cooled and the material is now ready for use in the litter box again. This material could theoretically be used for years without needing replacement thus reducing the volume of waste litter requiring disposal(anyone with cats will attest that this is a lot of material, in my home it is more than 25lbs a week with 5 cats thats a half ton a year or more!!!)-- jhomrighaus, Feb 25 2006 Previous Version reusable_20cat_20litter [DrCurry, Feb 25 2006] (?) Stats on Cats http://www.pawsonli...line_statistics.htmstatistics on cat ownership [jhomrighaus, Feb 26 2006] this system is distictly different than that system and has the distinct advantage of retaining the absorbent qualities of modern cat litters, a quality that plastic based litters do not share.-- jhomrighaus, Feb 25 2006 Interesting idea. Certainly better than plastic (which tends to absorb smells over time). But make sure the thing vents without leaking back into the house.
Of course, I'm not entirely sure what a reusable cat might be.-- DrCurry, Feb 25 2006 I think the fitting of a high efficiency heat exchanger and exhaust unit similar in design to many modern high efficiency furnaces and Water heaters could be included. This could be linked to your hot water or heating system to supplement them and reduce the waste of energy associated with using the system.-- jhomrighaus, Feb 25 2006 The volume of waste is the same, but instead of being put in a trash bag, it's dispersed into the atmosphere, where you won't have to deal with it ever again.......-- jellydoughnut, Feb 25 2006 Not true. When using regular cat litter it needs to be dumped once it has absorbed too much moisture. With this system the only waste is the moisture and other waste material that is scooped as normal(and not incinerated as implied above). The waste clay litter is saved from the landfill. Waste is significantly reduced.
there are 76 million housholds with cats in them in the US alone(more than 200million in the top 10 countries) if we assume that 75% of those housholds utilize cat litter and that on average those housholds use 5lbs of litter per month. This represents 1,710,000 tons of cat litter dumped per year(not including cat generated waste products)-- jhomrighaus, Feb 26 2006 Woven 2,4 polymethmethacrylate is extremely permeable--absorbent--plastic but couldn't be exposed to an incinerator.-- bristolz, Feb 26 2006 random, halfbakery