Don't know but I would definitely remove any tape, twine and large staples prior to shredding. It would probably be best to remove labels also. What kind of shredder is it? What is its capacity in terms of diameter of twigs, etc.?

Oh, yes, I would definitely remove tape and staples, I do that anyway when I'm taking down a box. I'll have to check the specs of the shredder/chipper. It takes what I would call twigs, pine cones, roots, but it has a chute for larger branches, which I would not use for cardboard.

I don't have a chipper/shredder. But I can tell you absolutely that my paper shredder does not handle cardboard, even the skinny kind like a cereal box. This is the voice of experience speaking. It would take a much heavier-duty one than mine to shred in a paper shredder.

Karen

I have a chipper/shredder but I've never tried to shred cardboard in it. And I have a paper shredder than can handle thin cardboard, like kleenex boxes and paper plates.

We have a local cardboard recycling drop off station. And most of my thick cardboard boxes go there, because I am too lazy to shred them. I save some boxes for smothering, but it seems like my husband gets a collection of boxes that is more than I could ever use...

All 3 shredder/chippers that I have used have had a hard time shredding cardboard and paper. Even the 8 HP shredder I use now does not shred cardboard very well and it can easily clog if fed too fast.

My experience has been that entire cardboard boxes decompose rather quickly in a compost pile. What I don't use for smothering in the border, if its a box, I just fill it with grass clippings and stuff and throw it in, or if its big, flat pieces, I just throw them in as is. Once they get wet, they fall apart quickly.

Thanks for all the good responses. The general consensus seems to be DO NOT SHRED cardboard boxes in chipper/shredder due to chance of clogging. I will, therefore, continue to use for smothering and in compost pile. Luckily, I do have a (Walmart) paper shredder which I am very happy with, and it does shred thin cardboard like Kleenex boxes, paper towel rolls, even small boxes. I do not see the name of the product anywhere on it, it is black about 18 inches high and takes 1 credit card or 6 sheets max. It works very well.

I had shredded thin cardboard in my paper shredder in the past with no ill effects. But one day I fed it a Bud Lite box (thin, like a cereal box) and jammed the thing horribly. I don't use it for cardboard anymore.

But even thick, corrugated cardboard is easy to tear with your hands if you soak it with water first.

Karen

I wouldn't bother pre-shredding cardboard. When you get right down to it , it's already shredded. (it's also pressed flat and dried) all you really need to do is wet it and fluff it and (imho) if you mix it with other stuff, it will just melt away (provided you fluff it at regular intervals)
IALBTC

Hello everyone,

I know this thread has atrophied, but this is a subject that I am very interested in and hopefully some one else out there, also.

I have a tiny space in town and cannot very well be building a land fill in my back yard - but I do not want to give my cardboard away - I figure I paid for it and I want any carbon value that it contains. I feed it (some of it) to my worms and any that I would put in my compost pile would - could not look like trash - there for it needs to be shredded.

I have tried the OfficeMart shredder and destroyed it; of course it is built not to be fixed but there are others, costlier, but less than machines advertised as cardboard shredders, that will shred stacks of papers.

Has anyone tried and succeeded in finding a way to shred cardboard, without spending $3,000+ on a machine?

Reviving this old thread (again.) Like the previous poster that revived it last year, I am interested in knowing of anyone successfully shredding large amounts of cardboard with only a reasonable investment in equipment.

I'm certainly aware that I can recycle cardboard, that I could perhaps even sell it. I know I can lay it on the ground as mulch or sheet compost it. I know I can use it to start the fire in the wood stove. I know of the people that have used (and ruined) office paper shredders. I know I can rip it by hand or cut it with a box cutter. (I do that now for my kitchen worm bin.) What I need to do is shred large amounts, enough cardboard to use as vermiculture bedding in deep windrows perhaps 20' long or more. Small-scale to start with, with no promised income, hence the need for low cost.

If chippers are unsatisfactory, has anyone tried using or adapting a lawn mower? I thought of experimenting with the idea last weekend but the mower was uncooperative and refused to start. (Can't blame it. Seems mowers go on winter vacation in late August here in Maine.) I'm thinking of a design involving feeding cardboard vertically from below the blades of the mower. (With more than the appropriate safeguards, of course. I am an engineer, very safety-conscious and believe that I need all of my body parts.)

Anyone actually done it yet?

Wayne
(Formerly of the Adirondacks.)

I looked at a couple of cardboard 'shredders' but only
recall one video that was interesting.

It created cardboard packing material by punching the
cardboard into a shape that resembled 'expanded steel' or
'expanded metal'. Look it up. It's diamond shaped holes in the entire sheet.

The purpose was to create cardboard to reuse for packing material. The result was a soft almost fluffy
material still in 1 piece but flexible. Also it had many
'sides' to the piece because of the holes in it.
that would help decomposition.

Someone mentioned, as an engineer, making a shredder. I thought about it but didn't think of a
method except the one that breaks up engine blocks.

That style has two or more interlocking rotating 'rollers'
with square (usually) pegs which interlock with the
adjacent rollars. Anything caught between them gets
crunched into 1" bits of steel or waste.

I should think that cardboard needs a different method.
Cardboard isn't always dry even if it's 'dry' it can absorb
humidity and that changes the way it responds to chopping.

The typical cut off table for steel sheeting would cut
cardboard into strips. So there's a design beginning.

Whirling blades at it doesn't seem the most efficient
method.

If you've seen some designs mention them.

A repurposing of an already designed bit of equipment
would be useful for all of us creating worm farms and
bringing 'cheap' materials onto property for it's
value to the soil.

Thanks and do reply with whatever you have. i'm watching the replies and will keep an interest in this.

I bought the lithium "zip snip" from amazon. I am on my second one because my charger for the first one walked away. Nevertheless, I still have the first appliance. But I charge one when the other one is being a personal sawblade. I love it! (Them) So there you go. There is one answer.

Neither my lawn mower nor my two wood chippers are satisfacrtory for shredding corrogated cardboard. However my shop bandsaw is quite useful for processing cardboard for compost and worm bins. I stack several sheets at a time and push them rapidly by the blade cutting off 1 inch strips. The ribbon like strips are easily managed and can be layered in bins without much effort. The narrow strips absorb water quickly and break down rapidly in both worm and compost bins. Worms will devour it and worm farmers say worms tend to lay capsules in the flutes.

I have a Mighty Mac 12p and run paper and corrugated cardboard through it. I learned a couple tricks: 1) if the screen is on, crumple or roll it up. If it isn't flat, it won't get pinned down beyond the reach of the hammers. Shredded material will still clog the screen, but tossing in an occasional branch fixes that. 2) if the screen is off, roll the cardboard sheet and hand feed into the shredder hopper, as opposed to tossing it in. It has to be long enough to not actually have your hand in the shredder hopper-that would be dumb. Ok, dumber. You gotta really be careful with this, the hammers like to grab and pull stuff in.

I'm not sure what the "lithium zip snip" or a "Mighty Mac 12p" are. Maybe y'all could educate us with more of a description?

Small cutter power tools.

http://www.amazon.com/Rockwell-RC2602-ZipSnip-Cordless-Cutter/dp/B003BEAOSK 

I did cardboard in my paper shredder, ONCE....had to get a new shredder. Now what I do with cardboard is let it soak, then tear it apart by hand it comes apart very easy

For the committed composting fanatics and serious gardeners, the Mighty Mac 12P is a very nice bit of equipment. It pretty much makes compost by itself. A pile of stuff that has been run through a 12P will compost quite nicely. It's not cheap, and it requires that the user be handy enough to tighten or change the belt when required, but it turns composting into a science, not an art.

It's especially handy for people who live on larger properties. It chips branches up to 3". I generally tow mine behind a lawn tractor. I've also switched the tires to solid rubber to avoid the trouble of repairing flat tires.

I've used my 12P to process long pine needles and used that as mulch under raspberries and that was a huge success. Once the pine needles have been through the shredder, they broke down nicely when used as a mulch.

adirondackgarder .

Reviving this thread again... was wondering if you adirondackgarder had any luck with your engineering ventures?

It's been a while since I've logged on as adirondackgardener. Anyway, I'm now adirondackgardener twice removed since I moved again. Never did get the composting venture off the ground (or on the ground, really) since I moved away from my source of mountains of cardboard. Now I'm using a lot of the cardboard I do get under mulch for starting beds in the new market garden and in the winter, I incorporate large pieces into compost piles, folding it into the yards of horse manure I have trucked in. I'm not worrying about shredding it since speed isn't the driving factor now. I'm back to making worm castings in 55 gallon plastic drums cut in half in the basement. Those are primarily filled with the pre-composted cardboard and horse manure. Still would be nice to have a simple, inexpensive tool to do small amounts of shredding.

I am using a cardboard shredder and very happy with its performance. People have known the importance of shredding cardboard but still now most of the people are not aware of the importance of shredding cardboard to minimize industrial waste and to save money. Cardboard shredder machinery is indispensable in shipping departments, warehouses, and other industries with the accumulation of cardboards. Cardboards are made up of recyclable materials that can be recycled using a shredder. Investing on the cardboard shredder will be a one-time investment as you will not have to order for cardboards every time. You will be able to use the same set of cardboards every time.

Hi, so which make and model cardboard shredded are you using?

I think the post above yours was a machine-generated spam, so wouldn't expect much of a response.

Personally I don't really understand the need for a cardboard shredder - unless someone's dealing with industrial quantities, maybe.

For composting, almost all corrugated cardboard starts to fall apart when damp for a few hours. Just stick it in a bucket or pile it up and spray it a bit. If you then feel the need to rip it, it'll fall apart in your hands.So that's the easy way if you want to speed things up a bit.

Personally I don't even bother with that. Even pizza boxes get tossed straight into my bin. Sometimes I'll rip cardboard, but mainly because I feel like it or want to put it in the kitchen compost container and take it out later. It hardly ever makes any difference in normal composting time.