Those kitties are still getting me in trouble, plastic-wise. And the trouble will continue a bit longer. You know how I said I was going to make it my mission to figure out homemade food ^[1] for them within the next two weeks? Well, it ain’t gonna happen this weekend because I’m leaving Thursday for my semi-annual meditation retreat (which I need oh so very much!) and won’t be back again until Sunday evening. But it’s gonna happen. I just feel guilty looking at all the cat food cans piling up in our recycling bin day after day, for a multitude of reasons. So, here’s last week’s tally:

Items purchased before the plastic project began:

• 1 Kleenex pocket pack wrapper. I discovered this one in the bottom of my backpack. I don’t think there are any more hiding in my house.
• 1 broken lid from a glass spice jar. Those kitties strike again! This time, the glass jar stayed intact, but the plastic lid broke. Go figure. I found another lid from those I’ve been collecting off the street that kinda sorta fits, so the jar is still usable.
• Wrapper from 2 Pepto Bismol tablets. Should have been unnecessary. Shouldn’t have had that second (or was it third?) martini with my friend Mark Saturday night while we filled out applications for The Amazing Race ^[2]. Oh yes we did! My life isn’t just about plastic, ya know!

Now for the new items:

• 1 34-lb. bag of World’s Best Cat Litter. Okay, here’s the thing. SweatScoop comes in a paper bag and is made from wheat. Clearly, it’s the ecological cat litter of choice. The trouble is, it sucks. It doesn’t work. It sticks to the bottom of the cat box. It tracks all over the house. It doesn’t smell great. And the clumps do not stay together at all. In short, I hated it.

  World’s Best Cat Litter, on the other hand, comes in a plastic bag and is made from corn. Inferior ecologically-speaking. But it works soooo much better. It’s flushable, clumps well, and is certainly a better alternative than clay litter. Okay, I know, I know. I did an interview with Allie of Allie’s Answers ^[3] on this here blog and told you about her recipe for homemade newsprint cat litter ^[4]. I just have not had the time to make it and try it out myself. That’s also on the eco-friendly cat agenda. But it has to get in line behind the food alternative, which I think is more important. This is environmental triage, isn’t it?

• 2 plastic wrappers from two 24-can cases of Instinct cat food. Speaking of the cat food…
• 1 plastic seal from a re-usable ceramic jar of St. Benoit yogurt. We eat yogurt so infrequently that my last homemade batch went bad and I had to start over again. I wonder if it would work to save my starter in the freezer each time.
• 1 piece of plastic from a bunch of organic bananas.

That’s it for last week.

I’m aiming for zero plastic this week. After all, I’ve collected none so far, and Thursday I leave for a retreat where there will be no plastic waste to collect. I just have to get through Wednesday and most of Thursday.