I'm wondering if I can compost all the shiny leaflets and booklets I get with magazines, such as gardeners world?
All the books say not.Presume it does not rot down well??
I don't put shiny paper in my compost. I believe there are a lot more chemicals used to make the shiny stuff, it does take a lot longer to rot down as well :)
I don't. Cereal boxes and loo rolls mostly, but never shiny paper.
I would imagine it would compost eventually, especially if its had a trip through a shredder to increase the surface area. A good soak in water will help as well.
I take all the shredded paper from work and mix it with my compost heap. I do have to make sure it just doesn't form a big wad of damp paper but I am trying to mix the heap up frequently so that all helps. A good mix of green and brown items makes the worms and bugs happy....
Traditionally the shine is down to kaolin (china clay) in the mix, but I bet they add other things as well. Kaolin is inert and quite harmless; it's also used widely as a food additive.
I do that too woppa30 - take shredded paper home from work to put in with the compost. Works a treat.
Twinkletoes
The shine you see on paper for example 'envelope paper' is put there by being manufactured on an 'MG' paper machine, china clay is indeed used in the paper industry,
when I emptied mine the other day, it didn't like the aquafresh boxes I had put in, they were covered in a shiny coating and did not break down hardly at all.
Jessands,
More than likely that could be a thin vinyl coating on the carton which is at the end of the day a plastic :)
:-\ I personally would not compost the shiny paper. I use loo rolls, cardboard etc for the browns for my composters... The shiny paper I put in my recycling boxes for our fortnightly recycling collection via our local council.
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Sounds like shiny paper may one of those things we don't think about - looks good but isn't good if you know what I mean. Especially if its coated with vinyl?
But I did a bit if reading about the processes involved in making paper, and there's something called calendering (I think) which seems to be a sort of rolling polishing process, which also can make the paper shiny. I wish I knew more, perhaps Mr.Smith can fill us in on what "shiny" paper is not coated with plastics?
Jennm,
The shine what you get on paper like envelope paper is put there by the paper going round a very big steel cylinder drum and a series of calender reels, I would say that a paper with a shine on it would take a while to break down over newsprint, :)