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Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: flossy on February 26, 2009, 17:23:42

Title: Paper shredder and garden compost.
Post by: flossy on February 26, 2009, 17:23:42

   Bought a shredder today and saw off a mountain of old paperwork ...   great,

   what bothers me is knowing it's common practice to mix the paper into your compst  --

   I'm really bothered about all the printing ink going in too,

   Advise please,   thank you.

   floss x

Title: Re: Paper shredder and garden compost.
Post by: manicscousers on February 26, 2009, 17:30:32

I'm sure there was a thread about this before, isn't the ink vegetable based ?
we shred all our junk mail, envelopes and old printed paper, put it in the chicken coop then into the compost heap  ;D

Title: Re: Paper shredder and garden compost.
Post by: hippydave on February 26, 2009, 17:30:53

ive been putting all my shredded mail in the composter and all my news papers  i never put glossy paper in there tho but i found this quite interesting (Ink contains pigment coloring, and press returns are contaminated with wash-up solvents and fountain chemistry. Vegetable oil-base inks are still considered hazardous waste.) :o

Title: Re: Paper shredder and garden compost.
Post by: flossy on February 26, 2009, 18:08:55

 

   This is gonna sound daft !    ;D

   What if you soaked it in a bucket of water  --  would that get the ' nasties  ' out ?    ::)

    Thanks you two,  value your info.

    floss xxx
                 

Title: Re: Paper shredder and garden compost.
Post by: Bjerreby on February 27, 2009, 06:35:36

Funny you should bring it up flossy.........I've been looking into inks recently for the same reason.

Black inks used to contain lead, but that is no longer the case except in specialist printing applications (some fancy books I gather). As far as I can tell, modern black ink is almost invariably vegetable based, usually soya. I think black ink is fine in the compost.

It is not quite so simple with coloured inks. They are also contain soya, but have added metallic compounds to get the colours.  I am not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if yellow ink contains chrome.

Anyway, my position now is that no shiny paper goes in the compost, and nothing coloured.

Title: Re: Paper shredder and garden compost.
Post by: flossy on February 27, 2009, 08:57:53

   Thanks Bjerreby,   can happily compost away now   ;D

   floss xxx

Title: Re: Paper shredder and garden compost.
Post by: Old bird on February 27, 2009, 11:12:41

I wouldn't have thought that unless you were using tons of the stuff that it would make that much difference anyway.  I used shredded paper from the office where I work and it certainly made good compost and it was a lot less "bitty" and more manageable to work too!

Old Bird

 ;D