Is It OK To Put Your Cat Litter Scoop in the Dishwasher?

Let me start by saying that I knew it was wrong. That’s why I tucked the cat litter scoop in the back of the dishwasher, on the bottom rack, and hoped no one would notice it was there. Also, I’m used to living alone and doing exactly as I please. No one is around to second-guess my choices or be horrified by my (apparently questionable) housekeeping habits. I thought I could get away with it. It was almost Thanksgiving, though, and my boyfriend was in my kitchen, making pies to take to his family dinner — so I got caught.

“Ohhh no,” my sexy cat dad said, his head bent over the dishwasher. “What is this?” He straightened up, litter scoop in hand. Was there an edge of glee in his voice? Of the two of us, I’m usually the neat freak, wiping down sticky cupboard knobs in his wake and evangelizing about the clean-as-you-go cooking method. But he was about to win this one, and he knew it.

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In my defense, there were special circumstances. I do not regularly put things that have touched cat poop into my dishwasher. But my new Litter-Robot had just arrived (yay! no more scooping), and I was decommissioning my Tuft & Paw Cove litter box (also excellent — but requires scooping). The scoop wasn’t super gross. It just needed to be washed before I stashed it away in the closet, in case I need to pull out the Cove box again at some point. If I lived in a house with a backyard and a hose, the whole operation could have happened outdoors. But I do not! My cozy New York City apartment presents a litter box cleaning challenge that I have yet to fully solve. And the kitchen was chaotic that day; the sink was full of mixing bowls and the counters were covered with baking debris. (Maybe if my boyfriend subscribed to my clean-as-you-go method, this whole episode would never have happened.)

Reluctant to wash the scoop in the sink alongside the other dishes, and also in a hurry to deal with it and get on with my own holiday prep, I stashed the scoop in the dishwasher. Again, bottom rack, in the back, not touching anything else. What harm could it do?

Diseases and disorders

Apparently, plenty. “It is absolutely NOT safe to place a cat litter scoop in the dishwasher,” Jill Roberts, PhD, a professor at the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida, wrote to me in an email. (Note her all-caps.) “Cat feces can contain the oocysts of Toxoplasma, a dangerous parasite that causes fetal loss in pregnant women, serious disease in others, and may be linked to psychological disorders such as schizophrenia.” These oocysts, she said, are notoriously resistant to detergents and other cleaning agents. “Theoretically, a dishwasher's high temperature could destroy them, but only if it actually reaches and maintains high temperature, and high amounts of organic material (i.e. cat feces) are not present.”

Let me backtrack. The reason I wrote to Dr. Roberts is that, after being thoroughly shamed and washing the litter scoop in my bathtub (just as gross to me, honestly), I told this story to my friends and family at Thanksgiving the following day and received mixed responses. A couple of them were on my side, finding nothing wrong with putting the scoop in the dishwasher, as long as it wasn’t caked in cat poop. In hopes of redeeming myself, I decided to put on my journalist hat and do some research. 

Most experts say it’s not the best idea

Camila Herrera, a cleaning expert with Sparkly Maid San Diego, believes it’s best not to put a litter box scoop in the dishwasher. “Although some scoops and pet items may be labeled as being ‘dishwasher safe,’ and high temperatures can kill most bacteria, public health and veterinary professionals consider used litter to be a possible source of parasites,” she told me. She advised keeping litter scoops away from any items that also touch dishes and food. Score another point for my boyfriend. (Sexy cat dad: 2, Elizabeth: 0.)

Adriana Aziz, the operations manager at MaidForYou, also sided with my boyfriend. She told me that her company has a specific protocol for dealing with pet waste, and that cleaning a litter scoop in the dishwasher “is typically not best industry practice, and I personally wouldn't recommend it.” Besides the issue of potential poop germs touching dishes and utensils used for food, she points out that any litter clinging to the scoop could damage the dishwasher. “The crystals can become hard and damage the dishwasher's filter over time when they inevitably get stuck in it,” Aziz says. “There are much more efficient and effective ways for cleaning the scoop, and it typically involves a soaking in dish soap and a wipe-down after with an enzyme cleaner.”

But maybe it’s OK?

Just when I was about to admit defeat, though, I got a reply from Karen M. Duus, PhD. A professor of microbiology and immunology at Touro University Nevada, she doesn’t see a problem with putting the cat litter scoop in the dishwasher. “As long as the scoop is dishwasher safe and doesn’t have any cat litter or litter dust sticking to it that could gum up the drain, it should be fine,” she reassured me. “Any germs that don’t die will be washed into the drain during the rinse cycle.” She acknowledges that while there is an “ick factor” to the whole thing, “it’s not any worse than putting dirty underwear in the washer with dishtowels or bath towels.” Thank you, Dr. Duus! Maybe I’m not so disgusting, after all. 

While I’m outnumbered (final score, sexy cat dad: 3, Elizabeth: 1), I feel somewhat vindicated. And even better, after Thanksgiving, my boyfriend moved in with me. I guess his love for me must have overcome his horror at my housekeeping habits. So though I may have lost this battle, I’ve won the war. From here on out, sexy cat dad is in charge of cleaning the cat boxes — and the litter scoop.