Compost Bins and CardBoard/Paper ?

Hi,

We have been given some 300ltr plastic compost bins, squarish shaped.

Not sure about how much and what type of Cardboard or Paper should be added to the mix which is mainly green rather than brown.

Seems corrugated cardboard and newspaper is good to use, but office/printer shredded paper, glossy magazines and printed single thickness cardboard packets may not be as good according to some websites ...?

Interested to hear what paper types other member find ok to use on the heap ?

 

+ screwed up balls of newspaper as it sets in solid lumps if added in wads.

There always seems to be more worms in compost with added corrugated cardboard. Flat pack carboard boxes from friends moving house are another source. I use stuff like that for lining the back of the car first, then compost it when it gets messy.

 

Better to put the cardboard through the shredder or just tear into smallish pieces ?

 

I tear it into pieces the size of the palm of my hand, as I don't have a shredder. Works fine, and I agree about it encouraging the worms - my bin is brimming with them! I stick to brown cardboard from deliveries and the supermarket, flattening it to keep in a pile on some outdoor shelving near the bin, and then tear it up and use it as needed, adding a layer at a time to the bin. If it gets a bit damp that makes it all the easier easier to tear up!

 

Just about all of our kitchen waste, except meat, goes into out two worm composting Dalek bins and gets pretty rapidly consumed by the Brandling/Tiger worms. Bigger bits of packing cardboard get consigned to our main garden compost heap - I just rip it up and add it from time to time as it helps reduce the acidity of the green stuff. I also add a few worms from the Daleks now and then and they munch away quite happily. I've been told that the worms like the fish glue that's used in corrugated card.