Value adding to our shredded household paperwork

As a household we generate a lot of paper that has various bits of personal infomration on it... it might be old bills, the child care receipts and invoices etc. To minimise the personal information we were putting out into the recycling bin we invested in a small office paper shredder.  We now shred all this paperwork, it becomes bedding for our backyard chooks and then goes into our Tumbleweed compost bins for a few weeks before being put out into the garden.

I will take the oppurtunity here to introduce you to our back yard chooks and the whole process of value adding to our household paper waste....

The chooks live in the chook pen in the back yard and do not get to free range due to two known chook killing dogs they share the yard with... but they get given lots of household scraps, garden weeds and snails and slugs. Here is my littlest bringing out the chook bucket from the kitchen....

The silky below is her favorite chook... and although they do not produce many eggs they will be handy if we ever need a chook to sit on fertile eggs as they seem to be really good at going clucky.  We have three silkies... all rescued from the RSPCA here in Orange.

Here is our latest box of shredded paper that will be the new bedding material for the chooks.....

The old bedding material was taken out of their hutch and mixed in the Tumbleweed composter with other non-chook food household compost (eg orange peel, onion peels, coffee grounds) and will be turned for a few weeks before being put onto the garden.

The shredded paper helps to dry the green compost and adds to the carbon balance.

This has been a great way to value add to the household paper we re-use at home.