Composting cardboard and paper

A page has been added to www.carryoncomposting.com  on  composting cardboard and paper. While these  provide a readily available  source of carbon  in most home composting systems  the volume of waste paper produced by a household is often such that it cannot all be composted using a single bin. It is also the case that where paper material is recyclable it is a likely to be a better  environmental option to recycle most of it  while retaining just sufficient to maintain the appropriate Green/Brown ratio for home composting.  However, before deciding to send all the excess cardboard and paper for recycling the use of additional composting techniques should be considered where there is enough space.

Other possible methods that could be adopted are trench, sheet and Lasagne composting the latter providing a cheap means of filling a raised bed.

In deciding on whether to compost or recycle paper and cardboard waste the are occasions when  home composting is the route of choice. One such case is  where cardboard has been  contaminated with food materials which would contaminate the recyclable waste stream if put into the kerbside collection system operated by councils e.g. greasy pizza boxes. Home composting is much better than the alternative of sending it to landfill.

Home composting can also deal with some types of paper, such as tissues and shredded paper, which in many areas cannot be recycled or composted via the council kerbside collection and would have to be fed into the council landfill system. The item looks at the speed at which different types of paper decomposes when composted.