Once and for all can somebody tell me exactly what kitty litter is composed of. Is it treated with chemicals? No, we're not going to dump it in the garden or compost pile but we do scatter it out in our woodlot.

Clay remains to be the most popular product ingredient; those that use baking soda for odor control are fine to use however, scented kitty litter raises concerns due to the chemical scents used. Recycled newspaper formed into pellets are also used now, but there are other products coming onto the market that are made of chemicals nowadays and should be disposed of properly.

Since there are so many different brands/formulas of Kitty Litter, it may be impossible to determine what kind of chemicals are in your particular brand without contacting the company that makes it. Is there an 800 number on the container? I think, as Roborganic says, there are some basic ingredients, but may be variations in the other fillers and chemicals used depending on each brands "special claim". Perhaps a veterinarian or pet supply store has access to more information as well.
Keli

This is just my opinion, but if you don't dump it in your woodlot, what else would you do with it? I doubt that it would be classified as toxic waste - can't imagine anyone hauling their cat litter to a toxic chemical disposal sight.

You have to dump it somewhere, right? Your options are probably the woodlot or the trashbag & then off it goes to the landfill. No matter how you dispose of it, it ends up back in the soil. Can't think of any other way it could be disposed of without it coming into contact with the soil at some point - either yours or someone elses. So I don't think it really matters what's in it if (1)it isn't considered toxic waste and (2)it's eventually going to come in contact with the soil anyway? I guess if you're concerned that the fragrances in it might pose a risk, you could use the fragrance free stuff. Myself, I don't see any problem with it - as long as you're not dumping it into your garden where it could pose a health risk by coming into direct contact with the plants you're growing, and as long as the woodlot doesn't runoff onto your garden. I'd be interested to know if someone else can suggest a way to dispose of kitty litter that I haven't considered. I'd be curious to know, too, how long clay kitty litter has been produced. Maybe by contacting one of the kitty litter companies, you could at least find out how long they've been manufacturing the stuff. Seems to me if it were toxic in any way, that would have been discovered by now. And from my experience, many cats don't care for the scented stuff anyway...so the clay/baking soda combination seems like a responsible choice, unless you want to try the newer paper pellets someone else mentioned earlier.

My last vet used only newspaper which they ran through a shredder in the litter boxes in their clinic. That would be beautifully compostable.