Cutting up cardboard for composting

[Jujubes5]

Any advice on an easy way to do this. I believe the ratio of green vegetation to brown is something like 3 or 2:1 brown to green to make compost.
That means tearing up an awful lot of cardboard. I've used a cutting blade which seems dangerous or torn by hand or used scissors which seem hard work. Anyone got ideas on how to do this better?
We don't have much newspaper but lots of cardboard.

Put to on the lawn and use the cutting blade that way? I've just been tearing it but that's not sustainable, although as I have chickens and use their enclosure straw in the compost I don't need as much cardboard.

This doesn't quite answer your question, but the easiest way I've found to get sufficient browns into compost is to keep all the brown paper that things like Amazon deliveries arrive packaged in, along with brown paper bags that the local supermarket uses for loose fruit and veg. I then run the whole lot through the shredder and keep it a big bag of it hand for when I'm adding greens to my compost- I've found it so much easier than trying to rip up cardboard!

I put my egg boxes, toilet roll and kitchen roll tubes in. Plus any other compostable fruit packaging e.g from peaches. It seems to break down pretty quickly.

Wet it first?

Why didn’t I think of this!!!
This is probably the answer - I have a tank thing I fill with water and liquid fertiliser to water the tubs , I can dip the card in that then when it’s soft tear it up.

Thanks all.

I just lay cardboard flat on top. Or use cardboard boxes as containers when I’m weeding and just dump them on the heap. It all rots down

Me too!

But I have 3 compost beds and rotate everything along them each year - so anything added to bed 1 won't get to bed 3 for 2 years. I then use the stuff from bed 3.

I rotate 3 bins too, but based on when I finish using the current bin, which I think is more like 8 months than a year. So only 2 years to get through all 3.

I use cardboard boxes and mail order packaging, but am quite lazy about tearing it up and chuck it in as big chunks. It still rots quickly and has made my compost much better.

You don't need to worry about tearing it up. I just stuff it in, often as whole boxes filled with veg peelings. It rots down within a week or so. I have four compost bins on my allotment and add cardboard every week along with green stuff and it's always all rotted down by the time the compost is ready.

Because of the chickens I have to be careful about rodents so I use a tumbler composter and only have 2 compartments. That means the cardboard needs to be in smaller pieces to fit in properly and break down faster.

I am thinking of using the in ground one again just for leaves, lawn clippings and cardboard. Can't put food scraps in there or the rats will make a nest in there again. But it feels like it would be quite a "poor" compost due to lack of variety.

Soak the cardboard until it is saturated. Lay it as a thin layer on top. Within a week you will have hundreds of red worms doing the job for you. Continue to layer, mashing it Down every 6 weeks.

I never put dry paper or card on my compost as I find it does not break down.

A tad late to the thread here but here's my experience:
I'm 'no dig/no till' (I prefer the latter) & organic, so need roughly 2m³ of compost a year for my 75m² of actual growing area.
Cardboard plays a major part as much of my green material is grass clippings (400m² of lawns, not all mine) & everyone must know how slimy they can become.
To counter the slime issue when there's no other brown material available, I pull all the plastic tape off brown corrugated cardboard boxes, cut them into strips & feed them through an old, 20 sheet office shredder of the cross-cut variety & add to the clippings at a 70:30 ratio, grass being the greater proportion.
This stops the slimy, anaerobic decomposition & surprisingly, even needs added water at times.
I've averaged 130kg of cardboard a year for the past 7 years & the shredder's still going strong (no more than 5kg a session or it cuts out).
I've found I can always source green material but good browns are more difficult, especially in spring & summer

Thanks, will try our shredder though not sure it is strong enough for cardboard.

My son gives boxes to his dog to shred! She’s very efficient.