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It's not exactly specific, and discusses 'dust' not vacuum contents, but I found wikipedia's entry on domestic dust interesting:
Originally posted by wikipedia
The precise composition of domestic dust may vary widely:
“ The quantity and composition of house dust varies greatly with seasonal and environmental factors such as the surroundings, exchange of outside air, age of the house, building materials and their condition, and the quantity of furniture and carpets, as well as their state of preservation. The composition of dust also depends upon the ventilation, and heating systems, cleaning habits, activities of the occupants or users of a room, etc. House dust consists of inorganic and organic matter, and the relative proportions of these components may vary considerably. Kindergartens dust often consists almost entirely of inorganic materials like sand, loam, and clay from sand pits. On the other hand, house dust from the homes of animal owners with worn out carpets consists nearly completely of organic material. In a study of 318 house samples, the proportion of organic matter ranged from between <5% and >95% (Butte and Walker, 1994). Fergusson, et al. (1986) reported the organic content of house dust from 11 homes in Christchurch, New Zealand, ranged from 25.7% to 56.5%. Floor dust from seven Danish offices had a mean organic fraction of 33% (Mølhave et al., 2000). ”
According to the German Environmental Survey, approximately 6 mg/(m²·d) of house dust is formed in private households, depending primarily on the amount of time spent at home. Nearly 1000 dust particles per square centimetre settle on domestic surfaces every hour. Some dust consists of human skin. Scientists estimate that humans shed the entire outer layer of skin every day or two, at a rate of 7 million skin flakes per minute, which corresponds to a mass emission rate of about 20 milligrams per minute."Dust bunnies" are small clumps of fluff that form when sufficient dust accumulates.
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My carpets are synthetic too, but they hardly shed any fibres at all, certainly not enough to cause me concern.
Most of the contents are hair, feathers, bird seed, dead skin and ... pins
Do you find this a problem in the compost TS? The reason that I ask is that we have two budgies and the amount of seed that I hoover up is immense, and I haven't been putting it in the compost as I thought I may get all kinds of wierd and wonderful things growing in the compost afterwards! Prior to getting the budgies I always used to put the vac bag contents into the composter or wormery, but haven't risked it since. I'll be interested to hear what you think about it -I'd love to get back into composting the contents of the vac again.
I always put the vacuum contents in the compost bin but when I get a lot of dog hair - I groom a few dogs in my spare time - that gets saved and goes round seedlings and salad stuff. I find it keeps the slugs off, they don't seem to like crawling over hair when it's used as a mulch.
I've put the vacuum contents in the wormery and that doesn't seem to be a problem either.
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