How to shred newspaper for compost

[Demetrius Owens]

I like the idea of recycling newspaper thru the composter... I've
got stacks of it that I'd like to get rid of anyway. What is a good,
fast way of shredding it? How fine does it need to be? I'll probably
be adding horse manure to the leaves that come down this fall. (letting
it cook until I'm ready to use it next spring) Would newspaper be a
good addition to this mix?

Demetrius

[Liz Albrook]

Demetrius Owens wrote:
>
> I like the idea of recycling newspaper thru the composter... I've
> got stacks of it that I'd like to get rid of anyway. What is a good,
> fast way of shredding it?

Rent a beagle. I just got one and she loves shredding it.

> How fine does it need to be?

Well, if you rent a beagle don't worry, the beagle will shred it into
the
appropriate size. If you don't rent a beagle and do it by hand then
consider
strips about an inch wide.

> I'll probably
> be adding horse manure to the leaves that come down this fall. (letting
> it cook until I'm ready to use it next spring) Would newspaper be a
> good addition to this mix?

Yep. I've got lots of nitrogen sources and little carbon so I
use newspaper. I don't know how well newspaper works for "fast,
hot" compost since I do "slow, lazy, no-turn" compost.

Liz

[George Shirley]

George Shirley wrote:
>
> Demetrius Owens wrote:
> >
> > I like the idea of recycling newspaper thru the composter... I've
> > got stacks of it that I'd like to get rid of anyway. What is a good,

> > fast way of shredding it? How fine does it need to be? I'll probably

> > be adding horse manure to the leaves that come down this fall. (letting
> > it cook until I'm ready to use it next spring) Would newspaper be a
> > good addition to this mix?
> >

> > Demetrius
>
> You bet, the newspaper will add additional amounts of C to the N from the
> horse manure. Put it in layers or mix thoroughly, wetting down as you
> go, moist, not dripping. I use a 4 inch diameter pvc pipe (sewer type)
> with holes in it down the middle of my pile to keep it aerated and to
> water through when it gets too dry.
>
> George in SW Louisiana

Whoops, forgot to say I run over the newspaper with the mulching mower
with the bag on it, preferably right next to the compost heap.

George

[George Shirley]

[Dwight Sipler]

> Demetrius Owens wrote:
>
> I like the idea of recycling newspaper thru the composter... I've
> got stacks of it that I'd like to get rid of anyway. What is a good,
> fast way of shredding it? How fine does it need to be? I'll probably
> be adding horse manure to the leaves that come down this fall. (letting
> it cook until I'm ready to use it next spring) Would newspaper be a
> good addition to this mix?

It depends somewhat on where you get the horse manure. I have a couple of
sources, but what I get is a lot of bedding (straw or wood chips) with
about 25% manure. This doesn't compost well by itself, since it's heavy
in carbon and light in nitrogen. Similarly newspaper is almost all
carbon, so to get a good compost you will have to add some source of
nitrogen. You can use green grass clippings or all your green vegetable
waste. If you don't have enough of that, you can add a high nitrogen
fertilizer to your compost pile. What I do is find a source of chicken
manure (high in nitrogen) and mix it with the horse manure (two horses to
one chicken by volume). That gives me a good hot compost pile to kill
weed seeds in the horse manure (horses are not much more than large
shredding machines so the seeds frequently come through undigested).

As far as composting newspaper, considering the amount of newspaper I
get, shredding it and composting it would be a chore. I would estimate
that a weeks newspaper load in the Boston area is on the order of 2 cubic
feet of cellulose. Shredded, it would probably fluff up into about a
cubic yard. The purpose of shredding is to increase the surface area so
the composting microbes have more to work on. Since the paper is fairly
thin to begin with, I suspect that shredding is not really necessary. You
could try to layer it with the manure. Try placing a couple of sheets of
the newspaper on top of the compost pile, spread a shovelfull of manure
over that, another couple sheets of paper, another shovelfull of manure,
etc. In the process you will probably tear the paper occasionally so it
won't block the passage of water through the pile, but you could just
poke the shovel into the pile occasionally to force vertical paths for
the water. This is labor intensive, but so is shredding.

[Ilana Konerding]

I sent my husband George's post and this is the message he sent back to
me:

Let's buy the pipe, but I'm not buying any newspaper that has an
editorial policy like that! The Sunday Herald is already full of horse
manure, as I see it.

>Ilana Konerding
>ikone...@wesleyan.edu

[Runs With Scissors]

>> I like the idea of recycling newspaper thru the composter... I've
>> got stacks of it that I'd like to get rid of anyway. What is a good,
>> fast way of shredding it?

I use a commercial-grade paper shredder at a friend's workplace.
It turns a huge pile of newspaper, paper bags, etc. into thin
fluffy paper strips that break down very quickly in a compost
pile. I am always amazed at how fast the paper disappears.
The only caveat is that you have to really mix the newspaper
with the nitrogen sources, otherwise you get clumps of
newsprint. This isn't so bad, though; when I break them open
to speed up decomposition, they are invariably full of happy
earthworms.

I don't subscribe to a newspaper but I end up with plenty of
free newsprint anyway from those all-advert "Trader/saver" things
that come in the mail. I've gradually been switching to shredded
brown paper grocery bags, as their additional stiffness reduces
the clumping problem and they seem to disappear even faster than
newsprint.

>> How fine does it need to be?

You actually don't have to shred it at all, but it is a good
idea because:

1) It speeds up decomposition
2) It makes the pile easier to turn
3) It is fun to shred paper

I particularly enjoy shredding all the election campaign materials
I get in the mail, after voting.

Regards,

Gozer

--
Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless
means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. -Paulo Freire

PGP email welcome.