I have some cardboard boxes items came in. Is it okay to cut those up into fairly small pieces and put them in composter unit? I’ve got that big composter and need to know more about what can go in it? Can I cut up cardboard and put it in there?
Sure you can. The smaller the pieces the quicker it turns to compost.
I’ve never composted paper, so I found this on “Gardens Alive”
Q. I’m a devoted fan of your show looking for composting advice. Many gardening websites recommend adding shredded paper to your compost pile. I’m concerned that the ink on printed paper contains chemicals, and I won’t have a truly organic compost come next spring. So should I add paper? Not add paper? Help!
-—Anne in Doylestown, PA
A. Unfortunately, many people who give composting advice have never actually done it, are not thinking their recommendations through, or both. I’ve composted for 25 years, tend to think things through maybe too much, and don’t like the idea of composting paper for many reasons.
Paper is one of the most easily recycled materials in today’s enlightened world. Virtually everyone has an easy way to get old newspapers, magazines and mixed paper into a stream where it gets turned into more paper, tissues, toilet paper or some other essential element of modern society, thus reducing the need for the raw material needed to make virgin paper (otherwise known as ‘trees’).
While some modern inks (like the soy-based inks that have become popular in newspaper printing) are fairly innocuous, inks that are made for some other purposes still use petroleum and metals in their manufacture. (A good example is slick paper, where soy inks dry too slowly to be practical.) In addition, some paper itself has been bleached with chlorine, a particularly nasty player whose breakdown produces dangerous dioxins.
Most importantly, there is little to no nutrition left in processed paper, and it won’t add much—if any—fertilizing or disease-preventing power to the finished product. That’s why I’m always yelling at allayouse to collect and shred massive amounts of fall leaves; shredded leaves make the finest disease-preventing, soil-enhancing, plant-feeding compost. If you have a compost pile where the predominant “brown materials” are paper instead of leaves, you are creating the equivalent of a heavily-processed artificial fast food for your plants. Compost made with shredded leaves is minimally processed, high quality slow food—and it’s local too!