The world of cat litter

History

It is an established fact that cat litter was invented by Mr Ed Löwe in the US in 1948. He was using dried clay for absorbing oil and grease in his work shop. By coincidence he noticed that his cats loved using this material. Litter trays as such had been in use since before WWII when people still used regular sand, saw dust and old paper as absorbing material. Cat litter entered the European market in the late 1960s. Being a luxury product, the total European market was worth no more than several tens of thousands of tons per year.

Clumping versus non-clumping

The product Ed Löwe was selling was a non-clumping clay called attapulgite. In Europe, the initial product from Spain was sepiolite, also non-clumping and in its characteristics very similar to attapulgite. In the early 1980s, clumping cat litter made from bentonite clay was first launched in the US with Europe following in the late 1980s.

In the case of clumping kitty litter, a clump is formed because the clay particles swell and stick together. The clumps lock in the malodours and can be scooped out once a day. After scooping, the litter tray is clean again and has to be filled up to the original level. In the case of non-clumping material, the entire litter tray has to be renewed once or twice per week. 

It is easy to see that, generally speaking, clumping litter outperforms non-clumping, due to better odour control and less material use. However, not everybody likes to scoop!

Main trends

In the US we see an interest in more lightweight products today. Producers start mixing in lightweight ingredients in their heavyweight bentonites in order to reduce the density and thus lower the transport costs. This also benefits consumers, as they have to carry less weight.

In Europe lightweight is not a new trend, because the commonly used clays are already more light weight by nature. Bentonite clay from Turkey is 20% lighter than US bentonite, and sepiolite from Spain is even lighter.

In the US, more than 80% of all cat litter sold has a fragrance. In Europe, this is still a minority, but rapidly growing. Consumers seem to like the variety of fragrances offered and the litter generally lasts longer in the litter tray. But what about the cats? Tests show that almost all cats seem to like fragrances as well!

Sustainability

Obviously, like in any other industry, sustainability is an important topic. A complete life cycle analysis of all products on the market shows that the differences in CO2 emission between all products are quite small. The decisive factor for sustainability appears to be material efficiency: How much cat litter does one need for one cat per week? So, how long does the material last before one has to change the litter box? Sorry for the industry, but the less litter we sell, the better!