shredded paper as compost

lately I've been putting in all the shredded junk mail that is nice and fluffy. Keep the pile very moist, but wonder how long it will take for the paper to disintegrate. It seems like filler and gives the pile a good consistency, but wonder if anybody else uses that as an ingredient.

I have been using shredded paper for some time now with great results IF it is not layered too thickly, because when it gets wet it becomes a sodden mass. Shredded junk mail might pack down less than straight shreddings.

We put shredded junk mail in the bottom of our kitchen waste bucket to absorb moisture and odors, then when the bucket is full it all goes in the compost pile.

We can get lots of shredded paper and I would love to compost it but it has turned out to be too much trouble mixing it with leaves to make sure it breaks down. I am now working on building a worm bed and will be using it for bedding. I hope to be able to use as much as we can get and that's a lot. I am hoping to keep it simple because as I have learned through time, if it is hard to do, it doesn't get done. I lust hate the thought of organic mater going to a landfill.

I get over a dozen big trashbags of shredded office paper every year from a local business that's glad to be rid of it all. I also shred my junkmail. I layer it all in my composter with lots of grass clippings from the lawn service and buckets of spent coffee grounds from a local coffee shop.

When my composter's full, the rest goes in a rarely-tended pile beside my house. The lawn guys know to dump a load of clippings on my pile every week, so all I do is pull the grass over the shredded paper (to keep it from blowing away).

Works for me.

I get all the shredded computer paper from a business we buy ag. supplies from...so it works out well - WIN-WIN. I use it to pack boxes when I ship my plants and have used it in various ways in the garden. It does glom together and as a wise person recently posted, if the job is too difficult it won't get done. I layer it with cardboard on an unused part of the garden to build up organic matter. The worms LOVE the cardboard and most of the time I spray the shredding paper with EM and molassas to help the breaking down. I most often use it for mulch in my vege garden... The weeds have nothing to grab hold of and don't grow....and spraying it down with EM1 the worms love burying under and then eventually thru. It is wonderful between the rows of asparagus and eventually it does break down. I use newspapers too but not the glossy stuff (it has too much clay and binders in it and the ink is not vegetable as is the softer stuff)

I don't even take plastic tape etc. off the cardboard...that will happen when we dig it up and rake it out.

I would love to find more uses for the shredded paper in Agriculture!!!! I wonder what it does to the pH? Hmmmm sounds like a project....

I'll have to check with business here about getting their shredded paper. When we closed the business in Calif where I had been the office manager/bookkeeper for 8 years, we shredded all the old files and the local vet took most of it for use in the animal cages, esp after surgery. Now I wish I had all those sacks full. But will try here for more. I've been tearing up junk mail in small pieces and putting in my compost bin as well as paper plates. I still ahve about 20 bags of leaves to use up so willhave to make due.

Forgive me, if I "grandstand", but you are on my favorite subject.I have been perfecting the junk mail/cardboard boxes for years now.My compost pile is a giant worm bed, and I have gotton into lasagna gardening, and find the junk mail, and cardboard of most value.I will take a piece of ground that is hard clay, and packed. First i do what I can to break the crust, I find the mantis the best friend for that, and then on goes all the newspapers, and junk mail, as well as all the cardboard my humas grubing hands can handle.When laying out what I can, I will have a pile of chips lying their to use to weight it down with.This process can take as long as necessary, because the worms go to work on all those ingredients, and by the time I have the area ready, its amasing how easy the ground works up.I no longer shread the junk mail, and "important" information, because worms don't care, and eat it too. Mike

Cool news, Mike. I am just starting! Layers carboard down for the worms and soon will be layering it with shredded paper... Have some experiments going as to how to break it own into organic matter the fastest. Do you have any ideas? Any interesting experiments you have done that way? Any columnists we should avoid adding to the compost (too acid?)??? Any links you have I would love,
TIA, Carol

PS we have about 3" of top soil on top of lava. The crumbly kind is what we plant on....

Know the terrain, and aplaude you for the agression. I am sure that among your plantings, all are not areal roots.
I have found that where worms are the domanant "break down", of the matter, there is a balance, but acid can be added. Coffee grounds are good for acid.I have a regular route I run for the grounds, and the rhodedendrums love it. Mike