According to a 2004 article published in Chemical & Engineering News, 60 percent of cat litters sold in the U.S. consist of clumping clay that does not decompose and should not be flushed in sewer or septic systems. “In contrast to clay litters, tofu litters appear to be a more sustainable choice,” Whitehurst says. “For one, they can break down, naturally giving more options for disposal, such as flushing. Secondly, they are made with a byproduct of soybean products and tofu waste, which gives life to a waste stream that would otherwise be lost.” It’s important to note that it is unclear where each tofu cat litter brand sourced its soybean dregs, so while we can say with confidence that these litters are biodegradable, we want to pause before calling them all “sustainable” until brands provide more clarity about their sourcing methods.
Plant-based alternatives to clumping clay litter have been commercially available since the 1980s and include sawdust, wheat, alfalfa, oat hulls, corn cobs, peanut hulls, recycled newspaper, and, yes, tofu. Their “flushability” is a big marketing point and you’ll notice the word “flushable” appears on several tofu cat litter packages, including prominently on the packaging for Nourse Chowsing Tofu Cat Litter.
Who can blame any cat owner for daydreaming about the day they can just go to town flushing all that litter down the toilet and be done with it? But hold that thought. For starters, flushed cat fecal matter has been implicated in infecting southern sea otters along the California coast with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii and infecting humans with T. gondii, an infection caused by the Toxoplasma gondii parasite that usually does not trigger symptoms but can be harmful during pregnancy and in individuals with compromised immune systems. Symptoms of the Toxoplasma gondii infection can include flulike muscle aches and pains, swollen lymph glands, and signs of ocular toxoplasma, such as “reduced vision, blurred vision, pain (often with bright light), redness of the eye, and sometimes tearing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger even signed a bill in 2006 that required all cat litter sold in California to contain a statement that would notify customers of the water quality benefits of disposing cat feces in the trash and not in toilets or drains.
Read the fine print and you’ll find some cat tofu litter brands do not condone flushing their litter or use cryptic language when it comes to their flushability claim. Frisco Tofu Clumping Cat Litter instructs on its box not to flush its litter, and Zen Kitty states on its bag that to “maintain good water quality do not flush cat feces in toilets or dispose of contents through toilet or septic system” because it will “clog pipes.” Nourse’s Amazon product page maintains that you can pour agglomerated cat litter into the toilet, let it dissolve in water, and then flush it.
As for Pidan, the brand doesn’t provide flushing instructions on its website, but its Amazon product page gives this advice: “Flushing into a toilet is allowed. Due to the solubility in water, the garbage processing is more convenient. (Do NOT flush too much into a toilet in a time.)” There is no additional instruction on how much litter is “too much” to safely flush.
How do cat experts handle this? Galaxy says he tries not to flush natural cat litter. “There are always going to be potential issues and whether those are septic systems or not,” Galaxy says. “Even if the toilet can handle it, I tend to not, but that’s a personal choice.” He adds: “I mean, most of them will say that they’re flushable. It’s just I think with the vagaries of septic systems, a lot of times I don’t think any of the companies want to be on the hook for that.”
In other words: Flush at your own risk.
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