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Shredded Copy Machine Paper

18 years ago

Hi. We use a shredder at work and I have a ton of shredded copy machine paper. Is copy machine paper ok to use as bedding? Or does it have harmful chemicals?

Thanks

Comments (7)

  • 18 years ago

    I don't know the type of ink your copy machine uses but you have a couple options to help you decide what to do. Your worm should have MSDS (material safety data sheets) on any chemicals you have at work which you could look at to see if there are any warnings about the stuff in the ink. Failing that, try and find a box from the ink or toner cartrage and you might be able to get some info from that or at least a company name/phone number where you might find out more.

    On the more experimental approach, you might make a little test bin and put a few worms in it with the office paper to see how they do. If there are no ill effects, you might try it in small amounts at first in your larger bin.

  • 18 years ago

    I use shredded office paper almost exclusively and have not experienced any problems. I do like to add a little amount of peat or existing bedding to it, it seems to cut down on the wet paper smell and gets the whole process going.
    There are some that would suggest that it is best to send the paper to a recycling plant, but for me, it is available and therefore I use it. I don't think the world paper supply of recycled paper has suffered.

  • 18 years ago

    I clean commercial buildings and bring home huge amounts of shredded paper. I accidently left some out in the rain and the paper got wet in the bags. Since I didn't want to put wet paper in with my dry bags (huge garbage size bags) I piled the bags up in an isolated area out back of my place intending to use them as land fill for holes my dachshunds & collie have dug. When I went to use them, there are worms in them, already. Now, I hate to disturb the bags because there are baby worms munching away. I am also doing an experiment with a bag or 2 of leaves (about a year old) to see if the worms will actually thrive and make more worms in the bags. Anyway, I don't think that printer ink will harm the worms...they chose the bags of wet paper to eat all by themselves and they aren't starving around here in the first place! These are wild worms...undomesticated, you see. =o)

  • 18 years ago

    Thanks! That's good to know. My son and I spent a lot of time tearing up newpaper for our first bin about a month ago. This will be a great timesaver.

  • 18 years ago

    You will find that the shredded paper tends to ball up. Just be willing to break up the clumps when you encounter them.

  • 18 years ago

    I used to shred paper for the worms, but I found it too much work. I find that the worms and other critters in the bin destroy the paper with little effort, so I now just put the paper into the bin and let them do the work. Even in my small (20 gallon) bins, I just put in paper to a thickness no greater than about half an inch. By the time I get around to stirring up the contents, or emptying the bin, the worms have generally removed all traces of the paper. I actually find this an easier approach than shredded paper because I think that my method leads to less clumping.
    Renais

  • 18 years ago

    I shred newspaper by hand while watching TV and mix it with my home shredder (no shiny paper in there) and that seems to work - not too much clumping.

    When I add to bedding the shred sticks to my hand so I try to keep one hand dry!

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