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folly_grows

Paper towels for bedding?

18 years ago

I'm only a few days into this Wonderul World of Worms, and wonder if there is any problem with using paper towels for bedding. Just the ones I use to wipe my hands or countertops. Nothing with toxic cleaners or grease.

Comments (9)

  • 18 years ago

    not as long as you have lots of other stuff with more texture - very wet paper towels, like very wet newspaper, will compact and get anaerobic easily ... or keep it 'fluffed up' to promote circulation and prevent it getting too wet

    Bill

  • 18 years ago

    Thanks, Bill. I am amazed by the variety of things that I can throw in the worm bin. :-O I started this project to recycle fruit & veggie scraps, now I'm reading about lots of things that I would normally throw down the garbage disposal or trashcan: oatmeal, pasta, bread, paper towels, coffee grounds, dryer lint (but I'm still wary about the non-organic fibers), cardboard boxes, fabric, hair. At this rate I will be able to replace our trash can with a much smaller one! As a quilter I am always tossing out bits of cotton thread and fabric. Now it's going to the worms!

  • 18 years ago

    keep it up! anything organic is compostable, and anything organic causes problems in landfills - even putting food waste down the disposal causes headaches at sewage treatment plants .... ultimately about the only thing that can't be composted is plastic, which should be recycled

    Bill

  • 18 years ago

    "anything organic is compostable" ? How about used Kleenex? Between allergies and colds, DH and I go through a lot of tissues every day and I'd hate to pass along anything bad to my worms. :-)

  • 18 years ago

    no chance of giving them anything they can't handle, their diet consists of microbes that happily decompose anything - contrary to urban marketing legend, sterilizing your environment is not only undesireable but impossible

    Bill

  • 18 years ago

    also, and hopefully this is not TMI (this is in the interest of starving the landfills!), i've used toilet paper with #1 on it in the bins. disappears. poof!

  • 18 years ago

    Definitely TMI (too much information).
    Since toilet paper easily dissolves in water, I always assumed that it somehow melted away during its journey through the sewage treatment system.

  • 18 years ago

    well some people have talked about human poop and stuff in this forum so i didn't think it would horrible to mention if the intention is right.

    nothing magically melts away in our sewage system; imagine if you drank water with magically melted tp? everything you put into a toilet has to be processed out, or else you'd be drinking some not so potable water. that requires energy, and chemicals - both things i am trying to contribute to less use of.

    my goal is to reduce the amount of anything going into whatever i can. in our bathroom #1 toilet tissue goes in the wastepaper basket. sometimes it goes in a worm bin, because while my area recycles most other papers they do not recycle used paper products.

    since we talk about worm poop, my hope is that one day we can also be able to talk about comfortably about people pee when it is relevent to our goals of vermicomposting and doing what little we can for the earth.

  • 18 years ago

    "How about used Kleenex? Between allergies and colds, DH and I go through a lot of tissues every day and I'd hate to pass along anything bad to my worms. :-)"
    Not only would the worms not catch some disease but once digested by the worms the castings would be virus free.
    They are using worms under hog pens to digest the manure. When the hog manure has been digested it is inoculated against salmonella and ecoli and the can sell that compost.
    Worms are truly magical.

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