I would not advise using kitty litter that is made from clay. If you don't have several indoor cats and three litter boxes like I do, you may not realize how HEAVY it gets when wet. Hey, it's heavy enough when the stuff is dry!

And yes, I have tried the bucket/sawdust(etc) method, to make sure I had something viable to fall back on in case of emergency. I live in an earthquake/volcano/flood area, and storing clean water to flush a toilet seems close to the ultimate stupidity to me.

I've tried raw sawdust, kiln-dried non-treated sawdust, paper-based kitty litter, Eagle Mountain Bedding (from large animal feed store -- it's just pressed sawdust that resembles broken pellet stove pellets), and a 5-gallon bucket of rolled oats with bugs in it from a neighbor.

All did very well, and there was absolutely NO ODOR. None whatsoever.

Dried shredded leaves and finished or half-finished compost is supposed to do well also, but I haven't tried those.

I guess many people would sneer at this method of disposal, but when I was watching mile upon mile of vehicles trying to escape Katrina, I remember thinking that most of those people would probably have found them really useful.

Sue