Can I flush cats mess down the toilet ?

[ThatFairy]

Just saw someone saying this on a thread. I always thought that as there's usually litter attached when scooping you can't do this ? I tie it in little bags and leave next to the litter tray till I put a bin bag out, I put out a bin bag once a day, so if I could do this it would be a lot more hygienic

Not if you’re in the UK because the sewer system isn’t equipped to deal with toxoplasmosis.

Even without cat litter I heard that you can’t put animal poo down a toilet as it doesn’t break up the same and can also cause disease (I found this out after putting dog poo down one day🙈)

We tie it in a poo bag, drop the bag outside the back door, and walk the bags to the nearest dog poo bin every evening. Our general waste bins are only collected every two weeks and I’m sure it would reek by then even if double bagged!

No, you can’t flush it.

Vile. Uk sewers aren’t set up for flushing animal faeces. Animals aren’t children as much as some people think they are

No! Please deal with your cat’s waste responsibility!!

My local council rubbish collection picks up cat litter and waste every 2 days. Is that not a thing in the UK?

I have a small bin outside my back door with a heavy weight bin bag in it and a lid with seals that wont blow off in the wind and I put my bagged cat litter in there.
The internal bin bag goes out with the rubbish every two weeks.

I've never heard of it

That's a good idea. I think I will buy one

I saw the same and thought the same thing.

I then googled and saw about cat litter blocking the toilet and decided not to.

I put it on a flower bed in the garden which avoids using plastic. The litter is natural wood.

Absolutely not but thank you for asking.

As a pp, I have a separate bin that I put the bagged litter remains into. I'm quite lucky in that mine much prefer wood pellet litter, which doesn't smell as much as some.

There is no threat to us from it, as drinking water treatment to our homes can deal with it easily - it already does, animals waste and other worse things gets into reservoirs so it would be pretty bad if it couldn’t deal with this.

But wastewater treatment does not try and sanitise the water, it use natural processes and more basic cleaning then releases it back into rivers etc. We don't want tens of millions of cats/dogs/pets parasites and other things that would survive this process, being released in vast quantities back into nature.

Btw I live in Scotland and I'm not sure we recycle water here

All water is is “recycled” @ThatFairy , it is treated and then released back into the water systems and will eventually be reused. Think back to school and the water cycle.

Yeah I suppose

I remember being told (by a water scientist) that typical London tap water had been through 7 bladders before it gets to the consumer! 😱

I know it's horrible if you think too much about it @Allergictoironing

We took up an invitation from our local sewer plant to see how waste water was processed and returned to the waterways. It was really interesting actually, entirely organic, no chemical process involved other than natural filtration and biodegradation. I’d like to see how the process works in reverse, to make it safe to drink.

One of the concerns is all the parasite-killing drugs excreted in pet urine/faeces (assuming you treat your cat for fleas, ticks and worms). These chemicals shouldn't be entering the natural environment because of the effect they have on insect populations. The wastewater treatment system won't remove these drugs, so they contaminate rivers and streams.

Bag it and bin it!

Oh gosh! I've been putting cat poo in the toilet for years. I thought putting it in the bin would be worse in case a bag broke. I scoop so there's no litter with it. I just thought human poo is in the toilet so a tiny cat poo would be fine. It means it's not sat around festering in a bin anywhere. I didn't want the kids finding a bag with poo in by accident. I assumed that sewage is treated so it would be ok? I've checked my sewage companies website and there's nothing about not putting cat faeces down the loo. No food oils, but nothing about faeces.

some water companies advertise it. i think thames is one. others just say dont put anything else down except ordinary loo paper.

like some others, i have my old foot pedal operated kitchen bin out the back and use it, emptying into the wheelie bin for landfill when it gets full. more frequently in summer to keep flies away.

Yes me too. I buy organic litter which is advertised as safe for flushing. I dont flush big clumps anyway just the individual poo. But I didn't realise it wasnt allowed

Oh lord I had no idea, I’ve been flushing it. Thank you for bringing it up