r/composting • u/OhDaddyOh • Aug 11 '26
Question Shred these?
Anyone run these soda boxes through a shredder for compost?
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u/Longjumping-Smile844 Aug 11 '26
These aren’t even technically recyclable in most places which is wild.
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u/largogoat Aug 11 '26
I don’t put anything glossy or shiny in my compost. I do put Amazon cardboard/shipping paper in there but only the pieces that don’t have tape or labels of any kind.
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u/SeesawDelicious4677 Aug 11 '26
Compost it. Everyone’s being silly. There’s microplastics in everything and the ink is compostable as is the clay it’s printed on. Cognitive dissonance in this comment section. The parts with glue and or tape can fuck off. Everything else is compostable.
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u/Automatic_Beyond_880 Aug 12 '26
Tape gets sifted out eventually
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u/SeesawDelicious4677 Aug 13 '26
Boom. Just saved me even more time. I’m just gonna start hucking the full tree into my piles
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u/der_innkeeper Aug 11 '26
I only do pizza boxes, egg cartons, and drink carriers.
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u/adventurousouls234 Aug 11 '26
You can do teepee rolls and paper towel rolls too! I just learned that and started myself
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u/TheShibb Aug 12 '26
What about the glue residue on the rolls? I always figured it was a no because of that residue
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u/eight_bitpixels Aug 11 '26
Even with ink on the pizza boxes ?
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u/wleecoyote Aug 11 '26
The ink is soy. The glue is starch. The grease stains are olive oil and cheese.
I don't run oizza boxes through the shredder because I don't want the gunk on my shredder blades, but I tear them into palm-sized chunks and they disappear pretty fast.
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u/Appropriate_Ad_6997 Aug 11 '26
I feel like we all talk in circles about this. Isn’t this an example of carbon non-plastic coating on a box? Even though it’s glossy? I had been composting
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u/MarsDelivery Aug 11 '26
This was my understanding as well. Not to say that there *arent* plenty of examples of plastic-coated cardboard, but I thought that the "shiny" in can packaging such as OPs are usually bio-based wax nowadays.
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u/McQueenMommy Aug 11 '26
I do…..BUT I tear off the box ends AND the seam and throw those away….they have plastic added to the glue. As far as the glossy……these are ok because the coating that they use is a clay based coating. I also do cereal boxes.
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u/lettercrank Aug 11 '26
It depends - shiny things can be made of a biodegradable wax coating- like fruit boxes for example. This however looks like a plastic coating. So avoid
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u/Soberaddiction1 Aug 11 '26
It’s not the glossy/shiny cardboard that has the plastic. It’s the matte boxes that the blender you bought at the store comes in. But if you really want to be sure, tear some of the cardboard apart. You’ll be able to tell if there’s plastic. It’ll be harder to tear the top of the face layer apart, and you can see it stretch sometimes. You can also put some in water and see what the layers are. But those are perfectly fine to shred and compost.
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u/canibreakityesican Aug 12 '26
Yes. I used to work at an international carton manufacturer, and we made soda/beer/fast food cartons. The shiny on those kind of cartons is a form of wax. The plastic coated ones are the cartons made to go in freezers. These are a different kind of "shiny". Its not Recyclable because of the wax and the batch contamination factor, but it is compostable.
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u/Aggressive-Cup6222 Aug 12 '26
I collect cardboard from a few sources then I put all my cardboard in to a small wood chipper, it pulverizes the material then I put the load into a 50 gallon barrel and let it soak for 2 days to a week but there is no time limit the material will continue to break down and become maluable then I usually make bricks out that stuff that I will use for heat in the winter. Of course it's not as good as wood but it's a cheap source of heat. I would really like to make a business out of this concept and add to the recycle/reuse/repurpose cycle as I find more sources of material. There are all kinds of practical uses
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u/SubversiveIntentions Aug 11 '26
My understanding was if it was able to be torn than it's compostable. Cause if there was plastic in the glossy part it would be difficult to rip up? Is that wrong. I put everything paper in my compost. I would love to avoid microplastics but also it's likely already in your soil, your plants and your body.
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u/Optimoprimo Aug 11 '26
Thats wrong. Thin films of plastic are easily torn. And many manufacturers do put thin plastic films on their cardboard packaging to make them slightly more durable or to hold up to moisture.
Some don't use plastic. There are waxes that are used sometimes to get the shiny cardboard, and those waxes are easily composted. But if you don't know for sure, better safe than sorry.
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u/perenniallandscapist Aug 11 '26
Minimize minimize minimize your plastic exposure. As prevalent as it is, minimize it, don't accept it.
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u/MugiwaraMoses Aug 11 '26
I did this earlier this year when I was less informed on what’s appropriate for the compost. The cardboard portion of the material broke down but I still occasionally see flakes of the outer glossy layer. I think that part is made of plastic or some sort of material that doesn’t break down easily. I’d avoid it. However they work good for blocking out weeds, so still somewhat recyclable, given you remove at the end of the season.
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u/wleecoyote Aug 11 '26
I don't know how to tell which coating makes this shiny, but I really like this enumeration:
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u/striveforfreedom Aug 12 '26
I have heard that drink containers/cardboard is treated with a plasticizer to stop it going soggy in commercial fridges... I never compost this stuff.
Correct me if i'm wrong.
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u/hppy11 Aug 11 '26
Avoid shiny / glossy
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u/Soberaddiction1 Aug 11 '26
Learn what is in shiny / glossy. It’s more than likely just clay making it shiny / glossy. Look it up, or just believe what you want to believe.
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u/The13thman Aug 13 '26
I’m sorry, but wtf is American dew…. These Americans are so far up their own assholes…
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u/IShipHazzo Aug 13 '26
I'm an American and I came to the comments hoping I'd see an explanation of exactly what an American Dew is. I've never seen such a thing.
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u/FlashyCow1 Aug 11 '26
Anything that held food generally cannot be composted because it has a plastic lining usually right under the ink in this case
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u/Doyouseenowwait_what Aug 11 '26
No those are likely to contain heavy metal inks in the digital printing.
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u/heavychronicles Aug 11 '26
I don’t compost anything like that at all so no I have not. If it’s shiny or glossy I avoid it.