Shredded Office Paper

[Mrs T]

Hello
Please can someone advise me? Can I use shredded office white paper with black computer ink as mulch on my Lottie?  I am concerned that the ink will leach into the soil and therefore affect my veggies which may in turn hurt me and family.
Any advice is most welcome
Thanks

[Mrs T]

[manicscousers]

we've been doing it for years, all the junk mail gets shredded and newspaper gets added to the compost, mulched around spuds, put in the sides of the tyres we grow our squash and courgettes in.. ;D

[Multiveg]

I compost mine. When I look in the compost bin, I see bits of the shreddings that have passed through snails. The colour of the paper can still be apparent.

[Mrs T]

Hi - Is that good or bad, that it passes through the snails and is still recognisable?

[Deb P]

It rots down really well in the compost heap, You can't see any recognisable bits unless they have shredded some plastic windowed envelopes by mistake!!

[Si]

I wouldn't use it because there is better stuff around. Bangor University has done a lot of research on paper mulch and the results are fairly variable. You definitely tend to get more heavy metals in the soil such as copper and in some cases, plants find it hard to establish. But I have visited sites where paper mulch is extensively used on farms and the yield is up. This is due to the high lignin content of the paper that holds moisture in the soil for thousands of years. When I say it is used extensively, they would spread a 6 inch thick layer of paper mulch and plough it in.

I have no idea about ink chemicals.

[RobinOfTheHood]

Well, I'm using it!

[Deb P]

I understand that most inks used in computer printing are now Soya based, so will be ok to use on the plot.

[cornykev]

Most people use it as mulch or in the compost, don't put too much in the compost though.  ;D ;D ;D

[eco-friendly27]

Good question. I was wondering exactly the same thing earlier today. seems to me if you truly want organic you shold not put those chemicals in the earth . but on the other hand it must be better than some of the stuff we buy from supermarkets. good luck anyway.

[asbean]

We use shredded paper from our home shredder (plus my work), and mix it with grass cuttings.

[dtw]

If it is laser printed or photocopied, then the ink is made of powdered carbon with a small amount of plastic to melt it onto the paper.
I would assume that the plastic is fairly inert, so wouldn't be taken up by the plants.

I'm not sure what inkjet ink is made of though.

[Blue Bird]

Hi I use it both as a mulch and in my compost it breaks down very quick and use it on my no dig potatoes half and half with my grass cuttings

[flowerlady]

We use shredded paper from our home shredder (plus my work), and mix it with grass cuttings.

I do this too ... stops the hot smelly glutenous goo that grass cuttings turn into!  ;D