Would someone be willing to buy something in the UK and ship it to me? It should be inexpensive to purchase (10 pounds), and while it'll be somewhat large in size it should be very light (3-8 pounds).

Ah hell, I'll just post a link. It's only slightly embarassing...

Yes, it's for cat poop.

It's not available in the US until February, and I'm tired of carrying out cat poop in little plastic bags to the kitchen trash cans. I have the other version of this, but this one is a better design.

What's better about the new one?

I could do it via UPS/DHL but it'll cost more than the product's worth

I think Babies R Us stocks something like this...

The first model has an entirely different mechanism. It consists of a wheel that turns, trapping the waste in sections wrapped around a central "spoke." It's hard to explain. But the downside is that it doesn't use the space inside very efficiently, and you have to end up emptying the device pretty often.

The new one, however, just puts everything into one large bag that is far easier to remove than the current system.

If you're so inclined, there's detailed flash animations of how the two work here.


I figured the shipping would be more than the cost of the product, but I don't mind that. What does make me pause, however, is that I've asked the company, and apparently the replacement cartridges for the old model don't work for the new one. So I'd probably want to get the 19.99 AND one of the replacement packages.

Any idea how much that would cost to ship? Looks like I'd have to commit to $35 to $80 before shipping...hmm...


Heh, I thought the same thing. I should just get a diaper genie!

The images on the first link look like they're using Diaper Genie refills. Basically a long tubular bag that gets twisted in sections each time you use it (as Matt described).

The animation in the second link doesn't show how the internal bag mechanism actually works. This is definitely inspired by diaper pails, but it's also got a nice receptacle for the shovel and likely the opening is better suited for shovel use as opposed to dropping a tightly wrapped diaper.

You could always wrap the cat shit in shiny foil paper, stick the pieces into a heart-shaped candy box and send the package to someone you don't like. At least that's how the story my grandmother told me went...

Ugh. Screw the whole cat box scene.

Next cat I get is gonna get this treatment.

That would be wonderful. I can never see my cats going for it, though. Too bad.

I used to flush the stuff down the toilet, which made things a lot easier, but the litter we use now can't flush.

The original version used refills that were almost, but not quite, exactly like Diaper Genie refills. You could kinda-sorta jury-rig Diaper Genie refills into the thing, but the rings were just a little bit too small.

Ah, so you have a litter locker of your very own?

I do, but I don't use it any more. It never worked all that well. Mostly, it was flimsy and kept halfway falling apart.

I'm not surprised. I don't think the build quality stands up to the complexity of the mechanism. That's why I'm interested in the new model, which is basically a bag with a removable pinch at the top.


You're right, but I think it essentially uses gravity to pull more of the bag out. The first model uses the turning mechanism to mechanically pull more of the bag out. This one, as far as I can tell, just does it with gravity. I'm surprised they designed it this way, frankly, as it seems a lot more efficient, resulting in less income on refills for the litter locker company

It also looks like there's no great need to actually purchase refills from them. I see no reason you couldn't use a regular garbage bag. Well, other than odor permeability. Their refills are cellophane-like, rather than the more rubbery plastic regular trash bags are made of.

I don't mind shipping this over for you.

If you are not in too much of a rush I could ship it via Royal Mail but there will be a delay as they are striking all over the place at the moment. It would be the cheapest option I would have thought.

Just PM me.

Cheers

Cris.

That's still likely a better proposition than Matt shipping the litter via USPS to the UK.

Good to know about the Royal Mail situation though. I know what I can tell some customers about apparent delays.

DHL tell me £8.00 per kilo

Hmm, that's a little better than Royal Mail was offering. I estimated about 10 lbs (about 4.5kg, right?), which they said would be about £50. Chris was very kind to offer to help me out, but I told him that for that much, I'd just wait until February or whenever they finally come out with the thing.

I'd certainly wait till Feb if I were you.

Seeing as this product STILL isn't out in the US, I had to find another source for the "Litter Locker."

Is anyone in Canada willing to order and ship this thing for me, and have an idea of how much it would cost to ship?

It looks like the Canadian and US dollars are roughly equivalent right now, is that so? I'm getting around $83 US dollars for $85 Canadian (I'd be getting the $85 package).

Matt, I'll gladly do it for you, but, they DO ship to the US from that site you linked. Take a look and post back if I'm mistaken...

Um...okay, that's weird. I looked this morning and didn't notice that, but you're right. I even emailed the company and they claimed they couldn't ship to the US. Strange.

Well, I'll give it a shot, thanks for offering!

I honestly can't think of any legitimate reason they wouldn't ship to the USA. Unless of course they don't want to make any money. Sales to the US would outnumber those to Canada 99-1 easily, regardless of what the product is. It's also cheaper to ship to the US than it is to ship within Canada with Canada Post. If they do enough volume with UPS, they can obtain discounts to ship to the US that they'd likely never be able to get for shipping within Canada. Etc etc...

Let me know if you run into any issues placing your order and I can definitely handle re-mailing for you if you need it.

I just scoop the litter waste into a plastic bag then throw it into my outside garbage can. Am I missing a better way to do it? Or is this just for people who live in apartments and can't access outside trash easily?

Some people just want the latest technology in cat waste removal

Well, I'll own up to that But really I'm all about addressing daily household activities, and figuring out ways to make them easier.

Currently I do the bag thing, but I'm going through the bags like crazy, constantly having to replace them. Plus, I do live in an apartment, and the trash is about a 600' walk away.

As I read it, if that handle came off, it would be eligible for parcel post, insured, at £8.32, delivery up to six weeks:
Pets at home (Who have 2 in stock at my local store) give the dimensions, as follows:
HWD: 44.4x25x23 cms.
Weight: 1.2 kg.

They quote the same for packed and unpacked, which seems odd, it only has to be 24mm smaller (900mm. max H+W+D) about an inch, to qualify, but I can't see Royal Mail waving it through any larger.

If you want me to check it out, the store's just by my daughter's where I am tomorrow and I'm at the Post Office on friday: Let me know?

I use plastic grocery bags. You can never run out of them- of course depending on the grocery store you go to asking for plastic bags is kind of frowned upon anymore. But I actaully use them for something so I don't feel bad. The whole plastic bags taking up too much landfill space idea is kind of overblown anyways. The real contributors to landfill space are two things: Newspapers and Construction Debris. The answer to those two is pretty easy- recycle your newspapers and re-use building materials when possible.

I think the problem with plastic grocery bags is that they're very lightweight and can be picked up by the wind and deposited all over the place, notably including waterways, where marine life can mistake them for jellyfish and try to eat them. Similar issues exist with other lightweight plastics, like styrofoam.

I don't think I've ever heard of anyone complaining in particular about grocery bags taking up too much space. I think there is a general concern with the overuse of disposable goods, especially non-biodegradable ones, and grocery bags are certainly part of that.

As far as newspapers go, I don't think we'll have much problem with newspapers much longer.

Yeah. I've never heard the landfill space issue before, and with Portland considering a bag ban (they're holding off, so that Oregon can deal with it on a state-wide basis), it's been in the news frequently over the last several months.

You mean you aren't rinsing them out and re-using them? Planet killer.




You know that you can get a 5 gallon bucket from Home Depot for, like... $3 right?