COMPOSTING CARDBOARD

Hi all, now that my local council have suggested that all cardboard should be composted, I wonder just how to go about it?
Obviously it's too thick for the paper shreader, perhaps spending all day with a pair of scissors?

Any ideas/suggestions? (apart from not paying my council tax!

 

why not ask the re - cycing officer . your paying for the priveledge of yet another on the payroll, why not get something in return,
ps if you wet it you ll find it goes all floppy

 

Yes good point TLG, I might do that.

I tried soaking some test pieces of cardboard; submerged in a bowl of water with a brick on top, and left it for a month.

Result: exactly the same as it went in, but wet!!! Didn't seem to achieve anything.

I've heard that worms feed on cardboard, but I don't know whether the type of worm used for this is active through the winter? Also is it desirable to add these worms to an ordinary compost bin?

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

brandling worms are the kind you're probably thinking of - have a look at the wiggly wormers site for info re wormshttp://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk

 

I am lucky as our local recycling depot takes cardboard, so I just compost thin cardboard [ cereal packets, egg boxes, loo rolls]. I wonder if a garden shredder would take thick cardboard? I've never tried.

 

I compost my thin cardboard, it adds air to the stuff, saving me forking it for a while. Thick stuff goes to the recycling centre.

 

economically speaking cardboard is a loser in the re cycling stakes . the local authority don t want it , that is why they ask you to compost it
in fact all this re cycling costs so much they ve had to up our rates by 10%........ like all these things they follow the COSLA line, like the sheep they are ......... only difference is sheep only get a �£5 per head subsidy, and local authority managers get that times infinity! [former LA employee]

[ 26. February 2006, 07:14 PM: Message edited by: The Lady Gardener ]

 

our area does a 3 bin system - compost stuff in brown bin, plastics, tins and cans, cardboard and paer in blue, and anything else in the green bin - which means you can get rid of anything somehow. The local recycling centre is very helpful too - and lets you have as much as you like of the free compost - I've taken tons, all for my own garden, and I'll be back for more. This is how it should be.

 

I would have thought that thick cardboard would make reasonably good compost - it is only co**** paper. But I would be wary about brightly printed cardboard. The bright colours are usually salts of "heavy metals" and they tend to poison the ground.


Edit: Please excuse the ****, the word I wrote was the opposite of fine - but I think the software, or the Chinese or the CIA thinks the last part of the word is naughty!!! They think I have hit rock bottom. :D :D :D

[ 26. February 2006, 08:53 PM: Message edited by: PeterS ]

 

:D It wasn't ****,was it? :D

 

anglo saxon words are ok with me ..... and i m a celt!

 

We compost as much of our cardboard as we can manage. Worms apparently love the glue in corrugated cardboard and adding cardboard to the composts bins helps prevent them becoming too soggy.
We save any large sheets of cardboard to use as a weed and pest suppressing ââ?¬Å?mulchââ?¬Â around brasicca plants, leeks and courgettes. We just make holes in the card at the appropriate spacings and plant through the holes. Bingo ââ?¬â?? no weeding and by the following spring the card has degraded enough to be simply dug in. Cardboard doesnââ?¬â?¢t look quite so like ââ?¬Ë?industrial horticultureââ?¬â?¢ as black polythene either. Not that we donââ?¬â?¢t resort to synthetics if we are short of card.
Brandling or tiger worms are what are needed in a worm activated compost heap or bin. You'll get some from most fishing tackle shops.
As well as really enjoying the glue in corrugated cardboard they also thrive on the odd dose of diluted marmite.

 

how on earth did you discover that Dave? I mean about the marmite? Was this an S2 science project?

 

Found it when I was Googling about vermiculture Nixon. Apparently marmite acts as a kind of aphrodisiac (FOR WORMS!).

Vermagra!

 

I left the last cardboard box out in the rain for a week when I came to put it in the compost bin it was that soggy that it just fell to peices