Printing purrfection: turning inky letters into kitty litters

Newspaper spoils from pressrooms across Australia are being recycled into cat litter and sustainable animal bedding.

The initiative between News Corp and pet care manufacturer FibreCycle, which began in 2020, has converted tonnes of paper waste into eco-friendly products – which can later be composted rather than sent to landfill.

The News Corp paper recycling initiative is part of the company’s commitment to minimising its environmental impact and boosting sustainability across the business.

News is aiming to reduce its carbon footprint by 60 per cent by 2030, and achieve a broader target of net-zero emissions by 2050.

FibreCycle’s paper pellets, which are sold as Breeders Choice cat litter and back-2-nature small animal bedding in pet stores and supermarkets, are made from 99 per cent recycled products.

Newspapers are a key ingredient because they are non-toxic and have no heavy metals added, meaning they are safe for owners and pets.

No additives or chemicals and glues are used in manufacturing the pellets, which are highly absorbent and have a natural odour control due to the products used.

This also means that the products are compostable so they don’t need to go in the bin when pet owners are cleaning up.

With an estimated 400 million kilos of kitty litter used each year in Australia, the project has the potential to divert massive amounts of waste away from landfill and therefore reduce emissions from greenhouse gases such as methane.

Pressrooms in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and the Queensland town of Yandina contribute by sending spoils to FibreCycle manufacturing plants in Toowoomba and Lonsdale in South Australia.

Print centres across the company now reuse and recycle almost everything used on presses, with paper cores returned to manufacturers and aluminium printing plates and punch-outs recycled for metal.

This has allowed all major print sites to be "zero waste" facilities since 2016.