cardboard - compost or recycle?

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cardboard - compost or recycle?

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Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9967
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Tue May 06, 25 9:16 am Post subject: cardboard - compost or recycle?

I tend to compost brown cardboard, freed of any tape etc. It was suggested to me that it would be better to recycle it as that puts it back into the cardboard/paper chain and stops more trees being cut down to make it.
OTOH recycling cardboard is not 100%, some is wasted, and there is the energy/emissions involved in collecting, transporting and processing it. Plus some of the wood used to make paper and cardboard is the by product of timber cut for other reasons. And trees are grown as a crop to supply this industry, isn't growing trees even only for a short time, a good thing?

and if i don't make enough compost at home - which I do currently but as I no longer have livestock it is diminishing - I would actually have to buy compost in, which would have it's own environmental implications, so I try to compost everything compostable.

soooo compost or recycle? which is better?

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44402
Location: yes

Posted: Tue May 06, 25 12:36 pm Post subject:

i would recycle cardboard, even the waste is used to heat the dryers but a very high % is almost immortal in a use and recycle circuit

i might repurpose some as "mulch" or to reduce weed growth under an electric fence

for bulk compost it makes a decent rain hat/warm blanket

as a compost ingredient to add bulk humus thinnings and clippings seem to work well as do the cropped out plants rather than boxes etc

mouldy old straw and "mixture" is rather awesome, just lay out the bales and feed the pumpkins or cucumbers generously. that will do a no dig massive soil conditioning in one season if it is solarised under clear plastic either side of the squash crop

PS use uv resistant 1000gm polythene waterproof membrane, builders merchants
i do not know current prices but a Â£50 roll did several solarisation patches, 10 or so cloches and a bender style poly tunnel using plastic gas pipe as hoops big enough for 15 big tomatoes
and half was left over for any allotmenteer who liked what you can do with it
i do not often recommend plastic, that is a good use of the material, and can be reused for years and then it goes to a rubbish to energy plant
maybe not ideal but ...

for high value feed, mixture.
you do need to put it in a place that will not be a problem , it can pong a bit at times but it will turn things into plantfood that would be problematic in compost
again plastic, big blue barrel about as big as an oildrum, oops, it would eat a wood or metal barrel

no plastic for this one, guinea pigs
if bedded on newsprint and hay and "we like salad" (and other things) they "process" the frass ferments into splendid compost
one of my favorites for a compost ingredient
the paper holds urine which is rich in K P N and has fiber for humus

i could rattle on about compost and plant food for ages
one bit at a time, mixture is in the ds archives

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16508

Posted: Thu May 08, 25 8:01 am Post subject:

At present, there are no mills in the UK using virgin wood for cardboard or paper as far as I know. The beech trees in our wood, planted 1969 were destined for that, but we repurposed them for firewood, and now mainly charcoal. Softwoods grown for paper are a crop, thinnings and final product in less than 50 years. There are a lot of severely overstood stands now with nowhere to go. Some may make lumber for house building, some will just get blown over and may end up lying there rotting, producing as much methane and carbon dioxide as if burnt or processed. (yes I know there are processing additions of CO2).

I generally recycle clean paper and cardboard, but do put dirty stuff on the compost heap along with most garden and kitchen waste. For dubious stuff, like bones, potato and tomato hulms etc. I have a closed bin with strong wire mesh at the bottom to keep out the rats.

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