LeafCycle Recycling Leaves into Sustainable Cat Litter

Challenge

Cities collect large volumes of fallen leaves every year. These are typically composted or treated as low-value biomass, while conventional cat litter continues to rely heavily on mined minerals such as bentonite.

Solution

LeafCycle transforms urban leaf biomass into biodegradable cat litter, creating a new consumer product from a seasonal municipal waste stream. The project optimises the material formulation to improve key product properties such as clumping, odour control and moisture absorption, while integrating circular supply-chain monitoring. The solution targets both B2C and B2B markets, with decentralised production and franchise-style models being explored as potential routes for replication and scale-up.

Impact

LeafCycle reports 76.4% lower CO₂-equivalent emissions per kilogram compared with conventional bentonite litter, together with improvements in 24 out of 25 environmental indicators assessed. By replacing mined mineral resources with locally available urban biomass, LeafCycle demonstrates how municipal green waste can be transformed into a higher-value product while reducing environmental impact and supporting more circular local supply chains.