How To Compost Cardboard After Moving Homes

​Going green, recycling and re-using items is now no longer an activity reserved for hippies and hipsters, but an absolute must for everyone. Everyday a numbers of species become endangered and it won’t be long before the same happens to us. Did you know that around 31% of landfills contains nothing, but cardboard? Moving to a new home requires anything from 15 cardboard boxes to 30 and more depending on the size of the family. For this reasons, our removalists at Paul’s Removals Melbourne take seriously our responsibility towards the environment and the health of our clients. For this reason we aim to use reusable or recyclable packing materials and we encourage you to continue our mission.

Besides being recyclable, cardboard is also compostable. If you are a keen and green gardener you might find the following tips very useful.

Types of Cardboard

• Corrugated – the one used more often for moving and packing purposes. It doesn’t look fancy and is easily composted.
• Flat – cereal boxes, juice boxes and all other commercial ones.
• Wax-coated – such cardboard is often covered with laminated materials, foil, or is chemically processed. For this reason it might be best if you can recycle it, instead of throwing it in the compost container.

How To Compost Cardboard?

Always cut in small pieces – this way it becomes easier for bacteria to consume it. Larger pieces are hard to decompose.

Soak the cardboard in water – this allows easier decomposition and bacteria thrives in moist and dark environments. Always make sure your compost pile is moist!

When you are mixing your compost pile place your cardboard at the bottom and add some items rich in carbon such as dead leaves, hay and straw.

Add nitrogen too. After you have made sure the cardboard forms the base of your compost pile and you have added items rich in carbon, now is the time to add materials rich in nitrogen to the mix. Those include mowed grass, spoiled fruits and veggies, peels, manure.

Trap the gases and “seal” with a layer of soil on top of the mix. This isolates the compost pile and protects it against outside factors.

To further enhance decomposition “stir” and turn the pile around. It takes 6-8 months, but it provides healthy, natural compost for your garden, reduces your garbage disposal and spares landfills.