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Waste encapsulating animal litter

Waste encapsulating animal litter description/claims

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application 60/946,318, on filed Jun. 26, 2007, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

A composition of animal litter is presented for containing a waste-activated encapsulating barrier having odor and sanitary benefits.

Existing animal litters, particularly feline litters, are partially successful in reducing the malodor of solid waste by the combined actions of 1) desiccating the waste, 2) absorbing odors, and 3) providing odor masking agents. A major improvement to the litter system would be a physical barrier that would help block the odor from emanating from the solid waste, and keep the release of odor to a minimum. In addition, this barrier would help to keep the solid waste in one piece, thereby making the waste easier to scoop out in one unit.

An aspect of the invention includes a method for controlling the odor that emanates from animal waste. The method comprises contacting an animal litter that contains at least one waste-encapsulating active that enables encapsulation of solid animal waste and/or urine clumps with solid animal waste and/or a urine clump. The waste-encapsulating active then causes the litter material to substantially encapsulate the solid animal waste and/or urine clump with a shell having a thickness of at least 1 mm. The shell physically blocks the emanation of odor from the waste and/or clump.

Another aspect of the invention includes an animal litter that contains a waste-encapsulating system that enables encapsulation of solid animal waste and/or urine clumps with the animal litter material. The waste-encapsulating system upon contact with moisture creates a shell of animal litter having a thickness of at least 1 mm that substantially encapsulates the waste and/or clump. The shell physically blocks the emanation of odor from the waste and/or clump.

Before describing the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to particularly exemplified systems or process parameters as such may, of course, vary. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments of the invention and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

All publications, patents and patent applications cited herein, whether supra or infra, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.

It must be noted that, as used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” include plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to an “odor controlling agent” includes two or more such agents.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains. Although a number of methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice of the present invention, the preferred materials and methods are described herein.

All numbers expressing quantities of ingredients, constituents, reaction conditions, and so forth used in the specification and claims are to be understood as being modified in all instances by the term “about”. Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scope of the subject matter presented herein are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as possible. All numerical values, however, inherently contain certain errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in their respective testing measurements.

The following description includes embodiments presently contemplated for carrying out the present invention. This description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the present invention and is not meant to limit the inventive concepts claimed herein.

As is generally accepted by those of ordinary skill in the animal litter art, the following terms have the following meanings.

As used herein particle size refers to sieve screen analysis by standard ASTM methodology (ASTM method D6913-04e1).

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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