Weird plastic strips in my bin

13 years ago

I was harvesting VC this weekend, and kept coming upon these odd plastic strips in the bins. They were rubbery, semi-opaque, and flat. Some were maybe 5 inches long, others were longer, some were only three or so inches long. I found about a dozen of various sizes in the bin that I sifted.

I wondered where they came from, since I don't remember putting them there. I do put in junk mail, and find the odd mailing window sometimes, if I forget to tear one out, but 12 rather biggish pieces of plastic, I just couldn't figure it out.

Then I remembered. This is the bin I had put whole corrugated boxes into before some things came up back at the beginning of May. I had found four boxes that fit the bin almost exactly, if put in a certain way, and I created zones, with different bedding in each one, thinking I would see if the castings were different and if there were more worms hanging out in different beddings. I fed each box fairly equally for a while, and kept notes for about a month, then let it go when I got distracted.

The plastic strips I found were the strips of hot glue the flaps of the boxes were glued down with. The boxes had been converted very nicely, whole, to VC during that time, and I hadn't noticed.

I will have to try that experiment again sometime.

Comments (9)

hoodat
13 years ago
I thought you were going to tell us you had giant flatworms. :D
soylobom
13 years ago
i found the same things in my box but couldn't figure out what they were. are you sure it's glue? it didn't look like it to me, but maybe we have different things. mine were uniformly shaped, sort of like an 8. i also figured they came from cardboard boxes, but wasn't sure where.
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antoniab
Original Author
13 years ago
hoodat, giant flatworms, ick! I am glad I don't live in planarian country. Those give me the heebies.

soylobom, I looked at some other boxes I have, and I am pretty sure I am seeing glue. I am not sure what figure 8's would be.
infonose
13 years ago
Could those have been strips of tape of various widths?
steamyb
13 years ago
I found similar shaped plastic strips from Black Kow Brand cow manure from Lowes. I really don't think quality control applies to Black Kow products, so I no longer use this stuff. It also contains wood chips and sand, which are not a problem but not really what I wanted to buy.
pjames
13 years ago
I was outside today turning over the compost bin that has the BSF. I was going to run it all through my wood chipper but quit the chipper plugged up twice.

Anyway, I was watching to avoid throwing foreign objexts into the chipper. I found a piece of almost unrecognizable denim material from where i chopped an old pair of jeans to make cutoffs. Then I found a piece of very thin ripped up plastic that was slightly colored.

It took me a minute but then I started laughing which got my nephew (my indentured helper) asking. He could not figure out what it was. It was the remains of a Wendy's soda cup. I'd though they were waxed but apparently that stuff is plasticized instead.
hoodat
13 years ago
I've solved the problem of where socks go when they disappear from my dryer. Apparently they go to my compost pile. Do you think there's a wormhole in space/time that connects them?
antoniab
Original Author
13 years ago
I have had a bird take a wash cloth from my clothesline before...maybe they take them from the line to your compost?
konadog
13 years ago
If you have ever shredded mail before, look at the little plastic windows after the envelops get shredded. What you'll see is thin, long strips of plastic.