Chipper/Shredder and Newspaper

[hunterridgefarm]

I bought a Troy Built Chipper/Shredder at an auction a few years back and use it to chip up prunings and small limbs for mulch or compost.

I try to recycle old newspapers and magazines and thought about trying to run the newspapers through the Chipper and putting them in the compost pile.

Anyone ever tried this? Do you think it will work?

 

[midlf]

I don't know about a chipper but I do know a rolled up newspaper will bring a 7-24 snowblower to a belt snapping stop.

 

[jinman]

I bought a Troy Built Chipper/Shredder at an auction a few years back and use it to chip up prunings and small limbs for mulch or compost.

I try to recycle old newspapers and magazines and thought about trying to run the newspapers through the Chipper and putting them in the compost pile.

Anyone ever tried this? Do you think it will work?

I don't think it will work at all. Chipper/shreaders have a hard time with leaves because they are so thin and flexible. The chipper wants to knock small chips off of a big limb and the shreader wants to take small limbs and brush and rip them apart. With paper, it would just curve around the blades and jam because the paper is too flexible to shear. It's kind of like using a loose pair of scissors to try and cut paper.

I have a chipper-shreader that can do leaves, but it has to have a special grate that is much bigger than the one it normally uses for wood. It takes repeated recycling through the shreader to really do much to the leaves. On the other hand, my rotary mower with a mulching blade does a great job of turning huge piles of leaves into tiny 1/4" pieces. I love it!

 

[BillyP]

I bought a Troy Built Chipper/Shredder at an auction a few years back and use it to chip up prunings and small limbs for mulch or compost.

I try to recycle old newspapers and magazines and thought about trying to run the newspapers through the Chipper and putting them in the compost pile.

Anyone ever tried this? Do you think it will work?

I don't see why it wouldn't work. As long as you ran a few pages at a time along with some branches or limbs.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

I don't think it will work at all. Chipper/shreaders have a hard time with leaves because they are so thin and flexible. The chipper wants to knock small chips off of a big limb and the shreader wants to take small limbs and brush and rip them apart. With paper, it would just curve around the blades and jam because the paper is too flexible to shear. It's kind of like using a loose pair of scissors to try and cut paper.

I have a chipper-shreader that can do leaves, but it has to have a special grate that is much bigger than the one it normally uses for wood. It takes repeated recycling through the shreader to really do much to the leaves. On the other hand, my rotary mower with a mulching blade does a great job of turning huge piles of leaves into tiny 1/4" pieces. I love it!

JIm,

Thats kinda what I was thinking, paper would just curve around the blades.
But also thought I could drop a section or two of paper in with some small limbs like BillyP stated.

I still must give it a try just to see if it works .

 

[zeuspaul]

I wet newspaper before running it through my shredder.

Zeuspaul

 

[ToadHill]

If your goal is to use newspaper for mulch or compost I suggest a different way that works well. After I plant and before I mulch I put down newspaper about 5 pages thick. It will stop weed growth for up to 3 seasons. Put it down, mulch over it and do the same thing 3 years later. The newspaper is broken down by then and has enriched the soil.

 

[dmccarty]

Make sure the newspaper was printed with Soy ink otherwise it might be a chemical you might not want to eat if this is a veggie garden.

Later,
Dan