Sheet Composting: Making Lasagna Using Cardboard or Newspaper

From Helen Venada,
Waste Reduction and Hazardous Waste Coordinator
San Juan County Solid Waste Division

The very best destiny for a cardboard box (which is built to be durable!) is for it to be re-used up to five times before considering it waste. This creates less pollution and greatly conserves resources too.

But once you’ve used your boxes to the max, try this alternative to disposal or recycling.  By layering areas of your garden or landscape with certain materials, including cardboard and newspaper, you can build healthy soil to create a new weed-free plot or pathway …without much labor at all.

Lasagna composting recipe (sheet composting):

• Start with a layer of nitrogen-rich material (manure, weeds, grass clippings, leaves in the summer); cover right over existing weeds or chop them up to speed up the “cooking;”

• Add a layer of carbon-rich material (flattened cardboard or several sheets of newspaper);

• Cover with a layer of compost and/or straw mulch and wait for the miracle of decomposition to build an enriched bed of plantable soil!  Top off your layers in path areas with bark, other mulch material, or gravel.

• Another layer of cardboard or paper can be added, topped off with compost for a deeper bed.

• MAKE SURE EACH LAYER IS WELL-WATERED

• Ask your neighbors to save their cardboard and newspaper for you if they’re not using it themselves.

• Search the Web for more detailed instructions for “sheet” or “lasagna” composting.

Venada adds: This is a great site for not only ag info but composting/waste reduction, etc. This link also includes discussion on sheet composting w/ cardboard (newspapers work too): preparing-my-vegetable-plots-for-winter