PRACTICAL VIEW : Labels Aside, Be Wary of Flushing Litter

To flush or not to flush? It depends on the label.

“Just scoop it up ‘n flush it away,” chirps the message on Premium Scoop cat-box filler, adding prudently: “No septic tanks, though.”

“Do not flush this product, or any other clumping litter, down the toilet,” warns Jonny Cat’s New Scoop Formula.

In the face of such conflicting claims, it’s clear that cat owners, long accustomed to bagging used litter and throwing it away, should be wary of changing their disposing habits.

“Some brands you can flush and some you can’t,” says Hilary Schroeder, owner of Petland Pavilion in Westminster. “There are now so many different brands with so many different properties.”

But Kathy Caldwell of the Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Department--speaking on behalf of the city’s plumbing--recommends pitching clumpable litter into the garbage. The absorption qualities that make it form clumps, she says, are the same qualities that could pose a municipal menace.

Specifically, such litter can do damage in two areas, she says.

The city’s waste-water treatment centers, facing ever-stricter EPA standards, don’t want unknown chemicals or abrasives throwing the system out of whack.

And homeowners should consider that the fine, sandy clay (usually bentonite) used for clumpable litter is also used to line the bottom of landfills because it forms a sludge that is not permeable.

“It’s sort of like those flushable diapers,” says Caldwell. “There’s a lot of pressure on companies to be green, and there are good and bad laboratories. Without conducting the tests ourselves, we say don’t flush.”

Roto Rooter’s Mike Ashker agrees.

“Dump it in the garbage,” he advises. “Underground sewer lines are full of little pockets, and anything that clumps will settle in them. If you flush the toilet once and it doesn’t get all the way out to the sewer, it will dry up and block it.

“On the business end,” he adds, “I have to admit, that’s great for us.”