UK Edition
Households are using cat litter to heat their homes, according to pet shop bosses, after the Ukraine war sparked a shortage of wood pellets.
Jollyes, one of the UK's largest pet food stores, said its cat litter suppliers were "working overtime to fulfill demand" for wood pellets, after a sharp jump in sales earlier this winter.
It said this came in the wake of "a lot of chatter on social media about using wood pellet cat litter as household fuel in the last few weeks around the cost of living crisis".
Millions of households across the UK have experienced jumps in their energy bills this year, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sparked turmoil in the international markets.
Earlier this year, Britain's largest supplier of firewood, Certainly Wood, said it expected sales to rise by as much as a fifth this winter, as families opt for alternatives to turning on the heating. It costs households around £600 to have enough firewood to run a wood-burning stove on evenings and weekends over winter, Certainly Wood said.
Meanwhile, the average energy bill went from £1,971 in August, compared to £4,279 a year currently.
Thousands of homes are heated using wood pellets, with people having swapped out gas or oil-fired boilers for wood pellet boilers, and opting for pellet stoves which can heat homes.
John Hanmore, head of sales at Pellet Kings, said pellets used for cat litter and heating homes were essentially the same as long as they had a certain accreditation known as EN 1 Plus.
This basically means premium quality where the pellets produce less ash and are the highest quality. Mr Hanmore said: "We don't agree with the cheaper pellets, as they can be of a lower calorific value [meaning how much energy they generate] and also are higher in dust - which is bad for pets."
It comes after many retailers have been battling a shortage of wood pellets over the past year, given that up to 40pc of the higher standard pellets used in the UK had previously been imported from Russia and Belarus. Imports of these were blocked by sanctions on Russia and Belarus.
The Government lifted the requirement to use the greener pellets for 12 months in October in an effort to get more supplies into the market.
Heart Pet Supplies, a pet store in Exeter, said its sales of wood-based cat litter had increased, although it said it believed this was attributed more to shortages of wood pellets and wood shavings, rather than people burning them to heat their homes.
Wood pellets are starting to return to normal supply in the wake of the Government move, Heart Pet Supplies said.