Neither one makes great bedding, but both work. I generate a lot of office paper, which I use for bedding, but I mix it with shredded cardboard. I wouldn't use shredded office paper alone, but I wouldn't use newspaper either.

I have had a few of times when the bedding at the bottom of a bin has become a thick, mushy mass. It seems to be loaded with worms. In fact, I started one bin with only the worms that were in that thick, mushy mat of paper. Rather than try to harvest the worms out of it, I used it to seed a new bin. It worked quite well.

When the bin is a couple of months old, I turn all the bedding to get that thickly matted bedding off of the bottom of the bin. I only do this one time between starting a new bin and harvesting.

So to answer your questions:

1) Office paper will work for bedding.

2) Wet office paper will be heavy and become matted at the bottom of the bin.

3) The bedding will still breathe, but less so at the bottom of the bin. Somehow worms will still like living in it, but it will not break down very quickly at all.

4) Give the bedding one good turning one time about halfway between starting the bin and harvesting. That will break up the clumpy bedding and allow it to break down.

5) If you are going to use newspaper or office paper for bedding, mix it with another type of bedding if you can.

I agree with the above reply.

The worms I have seen living in it exclusively appear to be more surviving in it than living life to the fullest.

White office paper has probably been bleached with dioxon. Many towns recycle office paper so there is a second use for it. Where there is shredded office paper there is probably also clean corrigated cardboard waste. (Ok, that can probably be recycled too.) 95% of worms would raise their hands and vote with their feet to live in and raise youngens in corrigated cardboard over white shredded office paper. Unless it is all you have and there is no office paper recycling in town, there is no reason worms should be used for office paper. Exception could maybe be made if the kitchen waste was generous. Such as for junk mail of one house to kitchen waste of one house ration. Then the worms would be happy.

All the junk mail I get and whatever office paper I generate is shredded and goes into either my worm bin or compost. I add a little cardboard but find it is harder cut to size. Small boxes fit nicely into the shredder. I have been cutting my corrugated cardboard up with a box cutter into finger width strips maybe 6 inches long, which is a pain.

I do see where harvesting vermicompost from a primarily cardboard bedding would be alot easier as the bigger pieces can be picked out. But the worms seem do be doing well.

I have a 50" plasma TV box that I plan to turn into vermicompost, so they better get to eating!!

I have read in other locations NOT to use office paper in worm bins because the ink used when the paper is printed on contains toner. If the compost from the worm bins is going to be used on vegetable plants, the chemicals from the toner can become present in the vegetables. Do you any of you guys know anything about this? I too have access to a large amount of copy paper, and i'd love to utilize if possible!

It isn't correct to say that the ink contains toner. The printing on the page IS toner. Toner is a combination of finely powdered plastic, carbon black, and sometimes a magnetic dust. Toner is not toxic. The health risk of breathing toner is the same as for any other fine dust.

So now you can decide whether you want to bed your worms in paper that has a small amount of plastic fused to its surface.

I use office paper as part of my bedding because I have it. By itself, it does not make good bedding IMNSHO.

I use my shredded bills in my bin occasionally, but a handful at a time. My main bedding is thick corrigated cardboard. The glue has protein the worms love. I make bedding by tearing into long strips after the cardboard has laid in the ground awhile and is good and damp. It tears much easier damp (like a rung-out sponge). Pete

I lined the sides of my bins with the thick corrugated cardboard. It helps absorb extra moisture. Once the cardboard is damp, replace them with new pieces and the damp cardboard is easy to be ripped into smaller pieces.
The worms love to hang out between the layers but so do the mites, and the fungus gnats breed there.

I usually dont use office paper but a little would not hurt mixed with other bedding such as coir and cardboard. If you want to shred cardboard I use a fellows w11c and it goes thru it without a hitch., but you will need to cut the cardboad into small enough sections to feed into the slot. Extra heavy wont go into the slot.