Thanks Jason,

I'll have to keep an eye out for this one. I've been cutting the cardboard with utility scissors into squares. I looked into CD shredders, but most are too thin and the ones that can handle it would require me to cut the cardboard at cd width so i'd be cutting regardless.

How much did it cost and did you get it at a chain (office depot, staples)?

Charles

I have the Tech Solutions TS-6000 which I also love. It has a 16 sheet capacity and has only bogged down when I put too many large sheets of newspaper in and they started gathering together at the edges in order to fit. Mine was pretty pricey -- I think it was around $74 at Office Depot.

Mariann

My ex-wife was a programmer at a large boat mfr. Leaving work one day she noticed a large paper shredder piled up with some trash waiting to hit the dumpster. Knowing that I was looking for one, she asked, and was told that it was hers for the taking. She comes home and yells down to the basement that I need to go get it out of her car to see if I "want to keep it". (One of the reasons she became "ex" was her communication skills  or lack thereof. oops...Pardon my digression.....)

It was a coal-fired Fellowes Power-Shred 310 table-top strip-cut shredder weighing more than 25 pounds! It mows through staples, paper clips, credit cards, stacks of paper, cardboard, hacked-up body parts (!) Â Heck, you almost have to TRY to get it to jam. ItÂs a bit of a dinosaur, but still a marvelous shredder. Incredible what some people will throw away.

I think itÂs somehow poetic that I use ^someone elseÂs^ garbage to shred ^mine^ so that the worms can work their moist magic on it to provide me with a useful product that some unfortunate folks have to purchase with real money.

It can be a wonderful world.

Chip

Got it at either at OfficeMax or Office Depot for $24.95 after the instant rebate. I can't remember which. I think it was $40.00 normally. It will handle normal width paper. I just slice the cardboard into strips roughly the same width as a 8.5" sheet of paper with a .99 cent utility knife and voila! shredded cardboard. I've also run manilla folders which are a little bigger than that through the shredder, and they kind of fold over on themselves, but it doesn't slow the shredder down any.

Now I'm looking for a good cheap food processor. I bought one at Wal-Mart for about $7, but it only holds about a cup at a time. I tend to clean out the fridge the night before trash day, so it takes about 5-7 loads to process all the worm food. Any suggestions?

Jason_MacKenna

For your foodprocessor, Salvation Army and Goodwill stores come to mind, and the like.

Good hunting...

TC

I help at a local auction house and that is always a great source for inexpensive food processor

This site by far has the best options for shredding and security

Here is a link that might be useful: Information Security

I tear cardboard into pieces about 4 inches square with my bare hands. It takes about 2 minutes to fill a 10 gallon bucket.

Marshall

Guys,

I saw your discussion about cutting up cardboard with scissors? If you do not have one of those shredders large enough to handle cardboard, try the way we do it. We just cut the cardboard into approximately 12" x 24" pieces (or a little smaller) then run them through our leaf shredder. It does a great job and shreds cardboard into approximately 1 x 1 1/2" ragged pieces. The ragged edges helps it start to softening so the worms can eat it sooner.

I have a fellowes cross cut shredder and it handles cardboard just fine.

At work I had bought a confetti shredder which makes the pieces all small and smaller than the cross cut shredder. (It was the staples brand shredder)

Karen

I wish I could find something that cut corrugated into 3 inch squares. I just love how the worms crawl into the holes. If you peel one open you have neat rows of worms on each side. Adorable.

(My daughter read this over my shoulder and shuddered at what I thought was adorable. I think she is adorable too. But then there is no accounting for taste. )

I use mostly cardboard in my systems, and I tear it by hand. The trick is to soak it in water first, then drip dry for an hour. It is easy to make nice cardboard strips quickly this way.
Pete

Could somebody please define "cardboard" for me?

Are you talking shirt board like cereal boxes and pizza boxes are made of or tasty, homey, corrigated cardboard? Two vastly different things. Both of which have no catagory for egg carton or coffee tray cardboard. When we talk cardboard are we all talking the same langage?

I add all the egg carton, coffee tray cardboard I can find to my system. I want to increase the numbers to handle corrigated cardboard. Cereal boxes I am ok sending to recycling.

What type of cardboard is it you all are shredding?

Anybody not shredding and adding whole and letting ninety, billionty worms do the work?

I shred corrugated mostly, but I also shred chipboard (think toilet paper tubes, egg cartons) as long as it is not printed with a shiny surface (think cereal boxes).

I tear up corregated into big-ish chunks. (3x5?) And I use tp tubes and egg cartons. I haven't used paperboard like cereal boxes yet. Do the worms do OK with them, sans shiny surfaces? Do they take long to break down?

This is a great question that I was wanting to ask. Thanks for bringing it up!

I use any cardboard mentioned, except processed boxes. To me, the thicker the better. My source for great cardboard is the local Sears hometown store. I use large boxes in my garden pathways buried in woodchips to prevent weeds. I keep a large damp pile on the ground protected from the sun. Sometimes I lay large folded-over pieces to the top of the bin, and tear later when it is damp.
I read about a large-scale (75 acres) vermicomposting farm nearby that is located near a cardboard recycling collection area. I believe that cardboard is their main/only feedstock! I think the glue provides protein and the corrigation provides air.
Pete