At least I hope they are happier. I gave them a week’s worth of damp, shredded newspaper to munch on. There was already a huge amount of organic material to eat. What else could they ask for?
You see, we have two compost bins for kitchen composting and fill them with layers of kitchen scraps and leaves. In the fall, winter, and early spring this is not a problem. But by now, mid-summer, last year’s leaves have mostly composted themselves leaving me with tons of twigs and gumballs to reckon with, slow biodegraders both.
Then it hit me, duh, shred the newspapers and soak ’em, just like the wormie composters do for their wormie compost bins. My son and I grabbed the shredder, a large Rubbermaid tote, and had at it. We did several batches, mixing the first in with the gunk and then layering the second batch on top.
It took some time and effort but I think it’s well worth it. My son and I got to do something fun together (he loves the shredder and the bugs), and we reduced our paper recycling by half this week. I like that I’m taking the paper and sending it back to the earth. Brings it full circle and is a small lessening of my footprint.
