© Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergA stack of wood pellets at the Hans Engelke Energie OHG depot in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. For many Europeans, the key concern during the current energy crisis is doing whatever it takes to stay warm in the coming months.
Comment: And Europe has had a relatively balmy winter thus far.
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.
Comment: Apparently the 'climate crisis' is not as urgent as the West's need to try and destroy Russia.
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.
Comment: Shortages of all kinds are on the increase, and for some products an alternative supplier either doesn't exist, or, for example with food, it will take at least one growing season to restock, and that's only if the businesses are still going to help replenish it: