Using Shredded Paper for Coop Litter - As Good As Wood Chips?

[gtaus]

When you shred junk mail, I'm assuming the envelopes too, do you leave the plastic address windows, or just not use those envelopes?

I tear off the plastic windows and toss that piece into the trash. I don't want the chickens to accidently eat a piece of plastic window, although I don't think it would hurt them. Also, I compost all my paper shreds and I don't like any plastic in the finished compost.

Plastic doesn't decompose. I cut all stickers, tape, everything except for cardboard.

Some of the newer tapes are compostable. I'm thinking lots of packages we get from Amazon and QVC have compostable paper-type tape. The packing tape usually looks very dull and generic. If the tape appears shiny or more plastic, I remove it. Ditto for stickers as more and more companies are using compostable stickers as well. If in doubt, I remove them as well.

As long as you don't let everything pile up on you, it only takes me a minute or two to shred my daily paper products.

 

[BDutch]

I don't want the chickens to accidently eat a piece of plastic window, although I don't think it would hurt them.

Shredded plastic has sharp edges. I think it can hurt them badly.
And new plastics have lots of toxins in them like formaldehyde. Chickens are very vulnerable for toxins.

 

[gtaus]

Shredded plastic has sharp edges. I think it can hurt them badly.
And new plastics have lots of toxins in them like formaldehyde. Chickens are very vulnerable for toxins.

Oh, well I was referring to the plastic windows used in business envelops. That is certainly not hard plastic and would have no sharp edges.

When I bought big box store bags of compost, I would always sift the compost before I put any into my gardens. You might be surprised (or not) how much garbage I would find in the bagged compost such as plastics, metals, wood and glass. Now that I have chickens, I still sift my chicken run compost but there is no garage in it. I just sift it to reject the unfinished compost which then gets tossed back into the chicken run once again to break down further.

But I really went into converting my entire chicken run into a composting system and I soon had so much finished compost to harvest that I invested in making a cement mixer compost sifter. I literally sift hundreds of dollars' worth of compost from my modest chicken run every spring and fall. In case you have not seen my current setup, here is a picture of my cement mixer compost sifter last spring when I was sifting out finished compost to build some new hügelkultur raised garden beds...

 

[gtaus]

It's been a while since I posted anything here, but thought I would update you with potential new sources of paper to shred.

In the mail, every month, I get a mini magazine from our electric company. It is loaded with colorful pictures, and I have always been told that you cannot compost colored magazines and such.

But is that old wisdom still true today? So, I sent an email to the publisher and asked them directly if their magazine was safe to compost for food gardens.

To my great surprise, I got an answer the following day and was informed that they use paper that is 30% recycled and that all their inks are soy based and perfectly safe for composting. You know, I just love finding out stuff like that, because I think we all should be more conscious about all the paper that gets sent to the landfill and the effects of the waste products on our environment.

Instead of tossing my old electric company color magazines into the recycle bin for dumping at some landfill, I am now shredding the paper for use first in the chicken coop as litter, and then that will be dumped into my chicken run composting system in my twice annual coop litter clean outs.

I know that is not a big thing to get all excited about. The point is that I am shredding up more and more paper products at home and using them to make wonderful garden chicken run compost for my raised beds. All those little "victories" add up and we are almost to the point where none of our paper we get in the house is being sent to the landfill.

Again, if you are tossing colored magazines into the landfill recycle bins just because you were always told not to compost paper with colored photos, you might find out that those magazines today can be safely composted with the newer soy-based inks. I think that is great.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

That's excellent both that the company replied right away AND the answer was the paper was compostable.

The little victories add up. Even if the paper was recyclable, what % of the paper you put in the bin eventually gets recycled? Even if it does, how many trips in a diesel truck does it take first?

When you shred and compost it, you know 100% of it has been diverted from the landfill and 100% of it gets composted. The fact that it doesn't have to take any rides in a truck AND you reuse it before you "recycle" it are big wins too.

Decreasing waste, ensuring total recycling, and reducing needs to buy new materials. That's what the permaculture folks would call "stacking functions" and it shows how small changes can amplify and add up fast!

 

[gtaus]

That's excellent both that the company replied right away AND the answer was the paper was compostable.

The little victories add up. Even if the paper was recyclable, what % of the paper you put in the bin eventually gets recycled? Even if it does, how many trips in a diesel truck does it take first?

When you shred and compost it, you know 100% of it has been diverted from the landfill and 100% of it gets composted. The fact that it doesn't have to take any rides in a truck AND you reuse it before you "recycle" it are big wins too.

Decreasing waste, ensuring total recycling, and reducing needs to buy new materials. That's what the permaculture folks would call "stacking functions" and it shows how small changes can amplify and add up fast!

Excellent comments. I suspect that the recycle center sends almost all of its paper products to the landfill. Everything gets mixed in with paper products that are not compost safe, making it all nothing more than a waste product. If I can shred it and compost it at home, that is 100% recycled and put back into the food garden cycle.

I have never heard of "stacking functions" but that is a great concept and exactly what I was trying to convey in my recent post. I know one small magazine I get every month is not going to make a great difference in my overall home paper shredding, but it's the combination of all those small changes that make a difference.

And speaking of small differences, for the past few years I have been pulling out light cardboard food boxes from our home recycle bins, telling Dear Wife that I can shred those boxes, and then I shred them up. This morning, she emptied out a box and asked me if I wanted to shred it! It only took a couple years to change her attitude towards not immediately tossing everything into the recycle bin, but I am celebrating another small victory where the first thing she thought of was if I could shred that paper for the chickens.

 

[BDutch]

I suspect that the recycle center sends almost all of its paper products to the landfill. Everything gets mixed in with paper products that are not compost safe, making it all nothing more than a waste product.

It probably depends where you live. In the Netherlands the paper and cardboard recycling works almost perfect. We have dedicated bins to collect the paper at home/schools etc. They collect the old paper every 3 weeks and it goes to the newspaper /cardboard/ utility paper factories where its reused.

From the internet/google: The Netherlands is a leader in the recycling of paper and cardboard: no less than 89% is reused.

The paper that isn’t recycled, ends up in the regular garbage, and gets burned for energy.
We don’t use landfills anymore since 2005. Except for asbestos (controlled). The old remaining landfills are cleared/in use for urban mining (energy) or covered with sand and used as parks, golf courses, solar energy plants, and such.

We have more reuse systems such as metals and glass. Unfortunately the plastic recycling system that should work like the paper recycling system doesn’t work properly, because new plastic is too cheap.

 

[gtaus]

It probably depends where you live. In the Netherlands the paper and cardboard recycling works almost perfect.

I have lived in Western Europe and I know that many countries there are far ahead of us here in the USA in terms of recycling. I am glad to hear that your paper and carboard recycling works almost perfect. I don't think we have anything close to that where I live now.

Years ago, when I lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, our Star Tribune newspaper had an investigative article on what happens to all our recyclables. At the time, we had to separate paper, cardboard, plastics, glass, metals in different bins. It was a real pain, but in general I agreed with the concept of recycling those products. Turns out, the newspaper investigators followed the trucks as they picked up all those various bins of material. They went all the way out to the landfill where everything was just dumped, all together, in large piles. Nothing was recycled.

Maybe things have improved since then. I really don't know. One big change is that we now just toss all our recyclables into one bin, and in theory, all that stuff gets sorted somewhere else. Frankly, I doubt much, if any, of those products are ever used again. I think they are still dumping everything in a landfill.

But that is why I like to reuse, repurpose, and recycle as much material as I can at home. I know that the paper products I shred for the chicken coop litter and later turn into garden compost in the chicken run are 100% recycled. At least, most of our paper products these days are using soy-based inks that are safe for composting. That's a good start.

Our local county landfill also allows up to load up as many free wood chips as we want for use at home. I used those free wood chips for a few years as litter in the chicken coop. Wood chips worked great.

But for me, shredding all our household paper products and using that as coop litter just works even better. The paper shreds are lighter, dust free, and break down into usable compost faster than wood chips. I am now shredding everything from junk mail, to newspapers, to light cardboard food boxes, and even thicker shipping cardboard boxes. Only the occasional glossy colored magazines that are not compost safe are tossed back into the recycle bins.

 

[gtaus]

2024 Fall Update: Considering More Options for Coop Litter

For anybody still following this thread, I thought I would post some of my thoughts for coop litter going into this winter. For the past 3 winters, I have only been using paper shreds as coop litter. It has been my favorite litter for the coop because it is light weight, dust free, and composts fast when I toss it outside in the chicken run in the springtime.

Having said that, I am not opposed to using other resources for coop litter. Or even mixing litter types. That brings me to some new thoughts I have going into this winter. I will be cleaning out the coop in a week, or so, and getting everything setup fresh for the long winter. This year, I have a potential resource that I have not used much in the past for coop litter....leaves.

A little back story might be helpful. I had a large part of my raised bed gardens devasted by deer this summer. In response, I have made a number of chicken wire protective cages that I will use next year to keep the deer out. Those cages sit on top of the raised beds and I have separate tops for them...

I built a number of these cages and put them on my raised beds. But then I got an idea that I could fill them up with leaves this fall and use the leaves to toss on top of the snow in the chicken run this winter. My chickens will not walk on the white snow. But last winter, I had a few bags full of fall leaves that I had saved and every once in a while, I would toss some leaves on the snow in the chicken run and the hens would come outside and enjoy the sun and fresh air.

So, I thought, I could fill up these cages this fall and have a big supply of leaves for the winter. I first filled up one cage...

Then today, I filled up a second cage...

That's a lot of leaves! Well, all that plus I moved my tiered compost bin system next to the chicken run gate and filled that with leaves as well...

I'll just put a tarp on those cages and compost bin to keep the snow off. That should keep the leaves good for the winter and I will have more than I could probably ever use in the chicken run.

So, I am now considering using some of those leaves as coop litter this winter mixed in with my paper shreds.

The only negative thing I have to say about using leaves is that they are so dusty. I vacuum them up with my riding mowers with grass collection bins. At times, I am kicking up dust clouds while I mow. Even when I dump the bins into these chicken wire protective cages for the raised beds, I get dust all over myself. When I get back into the house, I have to take off the dusty work clothes and take a good shower to get clean. I just don't ever have dust problems with paper shreds.

One big advantage to using leaves is that I can fill up one of those raised bed cages in about 20 minutes of mowing with my riding mowers. It would probably take me all winter to make half that many paper shreds in the house! I'll still be shredding all our home paper products, but I'm just saying that it takes me no time to fill up these cages with more leaves than I will ever need.

As you can see, I have an abundant resource of leaves to use. So, this winter, I am considering mixing in leaves with my paper shreds for the coop litter. If it gets too dusty, I'll just take out the leaves and go back to only paper shreds for coop litter. The important thing for me is to use all my free resources in the best way possible. I will update this thread with any lessons learned if I do mix leaves in with the paper shreds. I don't expect any surprises, but who knows?

 

[BDutch]

I don't expect any surprises, but who knows?

The surprise, when you add leaves in the run is that the soil gets a lot healthier . The combination of leaves and chicken poo makes a perfect compost.
In the fall I always use the leaves in the run and as bedding too. If we prune we shred the smaller branches for a longer lasting top on the run-soil for the same reason.

I use very no bedding on the coop floor, it’s a sand floor (my chickens font poop on the coop floor). The sand floor is a mixture of soil (with loam) and river sand. Its not dusty. My coop is an altered prefab and I don’t really go inside.

The coop after I got the poop board out.

On the poop board I use a base of sand to avoid that the poop doesn’t stick on the board and to use all kind of bedding to avoid smelling. Upcoming period I clean it once every 2-3 weeks when the weather is okay. Fresh topping every week.
In summer, I don’t top but clean weakly to avoid a plague. When I had a red mite problem they only had sand bedding with a few tobacco stems.

Poop boards : a thin layer of soil and whatever is available for free or shavings.
In summer the free topping is often grass clippings, dried grass (fresh hay). In autumn leaves. In winter shavings, hay or straw when it’s very cold.
Nest-boxes: sand/ diatom/ shavings/ hay. The hay/shavings get a second life on the poop boards.
Sand floor: I rake it now and then. The area under the poop board is used as sand bath. Only in winter after a snowstorm and it’s below zero during the day the chickens wont go out to the run. Then I add straw on top of the sand floor. In the Netherlands thats max 1-2 weeks a year.

An investment in a paper shredder could a good idea. In the end it would save me money. But now they pick up the paper and cardboard every 3 weeks to recycle it . And I really don’t spend much money on bought shavings/straw/hay. Guess about € 10 -15 a year.