I used to shred old paper towels. Now we just drop our paper towels/napkins/kleenex into the kitchen compost bucket and add it along with everything else, (including dryer lint). It all goes very fast, without extra effort. This suits us very well, as it seems more and more around here, there is not a lot of extra time to be had, and you have to have the will to live..:)

I have recently started a bin, and the paper towels don't seem to break down very quickly. They just sort of wad up and sit there. All the brown paper is quickly turning into a nice looking wet loamy substance; all the office paper has disappeared, and the worms are readily eating all the table waste I'm adding like salads, old apples, banana peels, etc. The cardboard (cut into 1" squares) also doesn't seem to be breaking down either.

Am I just being impatient, or should I process this stuff before I add it to the bin? (IE cut it up into smaller pcs?) Thanks.

I have many big bins that do not need things to be processed too much before adding them. If your particular bin does better with things being processed,(shredded), then you should do what works best for you and your bin.

I find paper towels are either whole, or non-existant. If theyre moist, the worms seem to like to burrow/hang out in them. Since they do seem to hang around longer, Ive taken to putting them in my yard compost. If it bothers you, id shred them... theyll go away eventually and theyre easy to screen/pick out if you want them gone.