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zero waste

manual paper shredder?

Erica Colmenares

pollinator

Posts: 256

Location: Charlotte, Tennessee

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posted 5 years ago

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Hey there,

Has anyone found a quality manual paper shredder? I've seen a bunch online for $15 that are plastic pieces of you-know-what. But I'd really love a well made one. We don't have a paper shredder. Alternately, do you have a plug-in one that you love that you can recommend? In the past we've just taken our papers to be shredded to Shred-It events, but I want to start using some of it in compost, etc.

Middle Tennessee - zone 7a

Travis Johnson

pollinator

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posted 5 years ago

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I do not have an electric or manual paper shredder, but I do have a gasoline powered one.

I have a 10 HP chipper/shredder, and by putting paper in the shredder section, it shreds paper fairly productively.

Also, I have also used it to shred feed for my lambs. It mixes grain and alfalfa blocks called "hay extentder", quite well.

Cristo Balete

Posts: 1010

Location: In the woods, West Coast USA

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posted 5 years ago

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I'd soak them in a bucket of water and some fertilizer with nitrogen, then bury them in a trench where you want to plant tomatoes or vegetables, with any other kitchen compost you have. :-)

An important distinction: Permaculture is not the same kind of gardening as organic gardening.
Mediterranean climate hugel trenches, fabuluous clay soil high in nutrients, self-watering containers with hugel layers, keyhole composting with low hugel raised beds, thick Back to Eden Wood chips mulch (distinguished from Bark chips), using as many native plants as possible....all drought tolerant.

William Bronson

gardener

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Location: Cincinnati, Ohio,Price Hill 45205

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Here is a video on making your own from a dead electric one.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=%23&ved=2ahUKEwiD49qP5triAhUNiqwKHW8lCeUQwqsBMAF6BAgHEAo&usg=AOvVaw0VTJzWxrN8ZFOD4xbU2nov

Here is an Instructible about making one from a dead electric one:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Hand-Cranked-Document-Shredder/

Not knowing your end goal, here are some alternatives: Soak in water, blend with drill powered mortar mixer, press/ drain it into a paper log,
Or make it into charcoal inside a stainless steel container,
Or just burn it
Or....

Eating Bindweed
Eating Buckwheat Greens
Paul explains why I spend time here,better than I could myself.

Erica Colmenares

pollinator

Posts: 256

Location: Charlotte, Tennessee

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posted 5 years ago

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OK, these responses give me food for thought. I'm leaning toward burying, since it seems the simplest. The enthusiasm of the guy who built his own manual one is inspiring, though!! Thanks, all!

Middle Tennessee - zone 7a

So I left, I came home, and I ate some pie. And then I read this tiny ad:

A rocket mass heater heats your home with one tenth the wood of a conventional wood stove

http://woodheat.net