So, I throw out about 1 LARGE kitchen trash bag of shredded paper every ~2 weeks. I believe that's 33 gallons of shredded paper, it's very heavy.

I am looking for things I can do with this paper... Anyone have any ideas? I hate getting rid of it, and would love to utilize it for something.

I was thinking fire-logs but I don't think the paper would be healthy to breath and probabl clog my chimney too.

Anyone have any ideas?

Compost it or use it as mulch in a garden. Heck, send it to me and I'll use it as mulch!

Or maybe make the world's largest paper mache duck?

-Blast

Lots of recycling centers will take shredded paper. Won't pay for it, but at least they will take it off your hands...

Blast - I shred envelopes too, and some have plastic. I don't think it would work to good in a garden ???

OBG - I recycle it curb side. I just meant I would like to `keep` it and utilize it instead of giving it away. Probably not going to find much use unless I only shred paper and not plastic items.

-Todd

Our area has a freecycling network (http://www.freecycle.org/). Check in there and see if your area has one and ask if anyone wants your shredded paper. Many people use it for their pet rodents, bedding for larger pets (cats, dogs), some shelters may want shredded paper for their pets.

It works for raising earthworms and for compost. You can buy logmakers and use them to compress your shredded paper into fireplace logs.

You have to be careful, though, as shredded paper is a huge magnet for rodents, silverfish, and other creatures we don't like in the house.

"...I just meant I would like to `keep` it..."

Oops, my booboo...

I did some googling, and found this. If it will work with newpaper, maybe it will work with all of your junk paper...

Thanks OBG!

According to this site:
http://www.ecocycle.org/faq/shred.cfm
Shredded paper makes a poor choice for recycling the paper, interesting.

It seems the most popular usages are packaging, gardens (non-glossy), and rabit/animal cages.

Another usage is to make your own hobo pillows or insulation with it... this could be dangerous and useful!

I guess if I got some animals it could go in the bottom of their cage.

My suggestion was going to be to use it for packaging when mailing things. I know not everyone does a lot of mailing but me living in Japan and my family in the states I mail a lot of packages and I always use my shredded paper for stabilizing and protecting whatever I might be mailing.

Thanks, Todd, that link was very informative since I shred and recycle the bits. That's a bummer that recycled shredded paper often just ends up in landfill anyway. Fortunately, I was already intuitively doing what the site suggested--just shredding the parts of documents with personal info and leaving the rest of the paper intact.