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FrugalK
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How do you add cardboard or paper?

Hi Garden Gurus,

I'm so happy that I've finally made a little compost heap out the back - something that I've wanted for years but not gotten around to.

Anyway, I've been reading around, and I'm short on browns. I didn't save leaves from last year (this year I'll know better). So I'm thinking to add some cardboard and/or paper, but I'm not sure how to prepare it. I read that people add "shredded" carboard or paper. Does that mean you run it through an office shredder, or just rip it into pieces, as small as you have patience for ? I don't have a whole lot of patience, and I'm imagining these biggish gobs of paper in there, getting in the way and not breaking down in any kind of hurry. Please let me know what you do.

Thanks!
K

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rainbowgardener
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I do save fall leaves, but when the paper yard waste bags they come in are empty, I compost those too. I just tear them into about notebook paper size pieces and they break down just fine that way.

gumbo2176
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I use a paper shredder to dispose of bills and things with ID or other personal information on them. I'll put this shredded paper in my compost pile and mix it in.

The only thing I do with cardboard is when I get boxes from the store, I'll cut them up in pieces the desired size and place that between my rows and cover it with grass clippings, leaves, etc. This helps keep weeds down and conserves moisture. It also has the added benefit that it will break down over time and when I get ready to plant the fall garden, I'll turn this under to help amend the soil with the organic matter.

tomc
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Most of the largish chunks of cardboard end up underneath mulch as a light block. The scrappy stuff ends up in the compost bin.

Anything smaller than 8.5" by 11" aught to do inna pinch.

greenstubbs
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gumbo2176 wrote:I use a paper shredder to dispose of bills and things with ID or other personal information on them. I'll put this shredded paper in my compost pile and mix it in.
That's what I do too. I don't have alot of shreadables so it's not alot that goes in there, I also wonder about a mountain of unbroken down stuff so what I have done is every time I cut the grass. I throw in a layer of paper and dump grass on top of it. This way the paper is buried and won't get blown around the yard. I have also been hitting up on a friend that has a dozen horse's and take the dump off his hands and put it in the pile to kick up the brown factor. I have noticed that since doing this that the earth from the compost has a darker richer color and smell than just plain grass compost. In the fall I just throw my leafs in the garden and let them break down in there. Good Luck

rot
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The decomposition process is a function of surface area so the smaller the bits the better until you get down to the granular level (then the material tends to smother or restrict movement of air).

Balance that out with the notion that it's going to break down anyways so how much energy do you want to put into it. The bigger bits will take longer is all.

Office paper breaks down better than newspaper. Newspaper tends to clump so mix it well. For myself, newspaper usually goes down the recycle path or I lay it down under mulch as a weed block. The best effect I got with newspaper was running it through a chipper while going through leaves and branches. Never do that on a windy day however. Newspaper seems to chew up office paper shredders pretty rapidly.

A lot of people worry less about the paper and more about the ink. Most newspapers in this country use soy inks but look out for color inserts that aren't so time sensitive that may have been printed overseas. Office paper means not ink but toner. Toner is plastic but all the MSDS sheets I've seen indicate it's non-toxic (I went through about a hundred MSDS sheets s0ome time ago). The brief reply I got from Xerox stated: 'the paper will break down but the toner will not.' I've composted lots of office paper and will do so again.

The bills I get in the mail tend to be a mixed bag of toner and inks. I'm never quite sure what they may or may not use. I'm ambivalent on composting bills.

I stay away from a lot of cardboard because I'm leery of adhesives of unknown origin.

I like to mix paper well in my bin. It can clump up on me.

to sense
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rot
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I also compost my spent paper towels and the cardboard tubes. I figure the windex and bleach I use for cleaning out gasses in my collection bucket before the contents ends up in the bin.

I end up with cardboard tubes lying about as I tear them into little bits a little bit at a time while I'm standing around trying to remember what it was I was going to do just then. Sometimes they don't stick around long and sometimes it seems to take forever.

to sense
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rainbowgardener
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Yeah all my paper towels go in the compost bucket; we only use organic cleaning stuff anyway. Since they sit in with the kitchen scraps and wet coffee grounds and stuff for a week before going on the compost pile, they are pretty soaked through. They disappear rapidly in my compost pile and I don't bother tearing them any smaller than the sheets they come in.

toxcrusadr
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One of the main ingredients in black printer toner is finely powdered carbon, which is what makes it black. Certainly makes sense that there is some kind of plastic type material in there too that is melted after it's applied and holds it all together. It's a tiny fraction of the weight of the paper and I wouldn't have a problem with it either.

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!potatoes!
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as far as shredding labor goes, most newspapers tear very easily and nicely in one direction. long thin strips compost fine.

ThomasCA
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I get used coffee grinds from my job.
I set out a trash bin labelled as 'Used Coffe Grinds' and notified our porters to dispose of all used grinds and filters in that bin. At the end of each day I pull the bag out of the bin, and take it home.

At the end of each week, I also collect the shredded paper from the office and take it home.

I combine both into my compost bin to help balance out browns and greens.

rot
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Just recovered from a short lived cold. All the tissues from blowing my nose all day went into the compost bucket too.

There was a time I was tearing up newspaper by hand while sitting around watching tv. I typically have trouble with clumping when I compost newspaper. My only success overcoming the clumping effect really was running the newspapers through the chipper with other stuff and mixing it all up in that dry state. Mostly I divert newspaper to the recycling bin. It's still there when I ned to scrounge up browns though.

My experiment of just grass clippings and shredded office paper reduced down to about nothing. I think I was weak on the shredded paper side I think but still, I really like a diverse bunch of ingredients.

to sense
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