Cardboard

I put the occasional pile of shredded paper from my office shredder on my compost heap. I have recently moved and have a load of cardboard boxes I need to dispose of. Could I put them through my garden shredder and add them (in layers) to compost heaps?

 

I don't bother with the shredder Prastio,mine isn't too good with cardboard. I just rip it up and scrunch it to avoid it lying flat and leave it to soften up until I have grass mowings to mix it with.I emptied a bin this morning that I put some in and it was fine.

 

Thanks for that - I'll give it a try.

 

"I put the occasional pile of shredded paper from my office shredder on my compost heap"

We put ALL of ours through - a bunch of people producing confidential information, I reckon its reams-per-month of useful compost!

 

I put loads of cardboard on my tip. My friends give it to me to get rid for them. I rip it up then wet it with the hose. I think it improves things.

 

Cardboard is a good thing to add. If it's corrugated stuff worms love the glue. I store any big sheets we get and add them as insulating layers to the top of the main heap. They break down within a few weeks and apart from helping keep heat in they keep the top of the heap dark and encourage worms to work near the top.
We also add lots of card and paper to our two worm 'daleks' - helps the brown-green balance and stops them getting too soggy.

 

Mmmmh....

Try to keep things as organic as possible, and whatever they may say there is NOTHING organinc about paper and ink. Stuffed full with chemicals.

 

Very true Ivory.

However, shame to waste the organic material.... and paper and cardbaord are so good at restoring the balance when you have lots of grass clippings.

 

Of course every gardener has his own way to do things and that is half of the fun, I have tons of grass clippings, I only put them in the compost when I need soft greens there, else I use them all as mulch... and I hardly ever have enough of them, lol.

All in all I don't think brown cardboard is too horrid, and I use newspaper for seedlings pots sometimes, but coloured inks and bright white paper... brrr. And glossy paper is the worst of all. My suggestion would be not to use themfor veggies at least

 

Thanks, people, for the helpful responses. My only slight doubt is which system to adopt. From what I gather from the above, some people crumple/shred to stop having a layer, some people deliberately put it as a layer to help with heating the heap! The common factor seems to be to soak the cardboard thoroughly. I'll certainly be adding unprinted cardboard to my compost in future.