Shredded cardboard is a popular bedding material in a worm bin. But do you need to remove the tape before you shred it? If the tape is plastic, then yes. But what about the tape that Amazon uses to seal their boxes? Some people remove it. Some people don’t.
Amazon Box tape has fibers in it to add strength to the tape. What are those fibers made of, and will they decompose in the worm bin? I wanted to find out. I ran one of my worm feeding experiments using Amazon box tape rolled up with horse manure. I left the experiment in the bin for 11 weeks to give the paper plenty of time to break down. The result was partly what I expected, and partly a surprise.
The fibers in the tape do not break down. I did a flame test on one of the fibers, and it melted. So, the fibers are synthetic, probably nylon. Amazon claims that the tape, including the fibers, is biodegradable. But my test shows that in a worm bin, you can’t rely on that.
But I also had some sort of a thin film left behind. I assumed it was the adhesive. It is possible that it could have been some sort of coating on the printed side of the tape, but I didn’t notice any sort of glossy finish on the tape. Whatever it was, it didn’t break down in the bin after 11 weeks. So, if you are using Amazon boxes for bedding in your worm bin, remove the tape first.