Re: clean with magazine sheets but not newspaper?

[Peter Andrews]

After reading our newspapers we end up with an oily dirt on our hands, but

> not after reading the magazine supplements that come inside the newspapers > or the television guide magazines. > > I wondering what the significance is with regard to using sheets from the > magazines with regard to wrapping food. I know you are not suppose to use > newspaper. But is it alright to use the magazine sheets for wrapping food? > Also are they both alright to use in garden composting? This question is > also relevant when using dampened magazine sheets to clean down food > surfaces and clean windows etc. > > Would anyone know how to explain simply how the method of printing is done > differently between the magazines and the newspapers? Thanks for any > advice. > >

Re compost: The worms in our compost thrive on a vast assortment of shredded paper - from Makro catalogues to A4 letter grade. In addition to kitchen waste and grass cuttings of course.

Clean windows if you like but I wouldn't use them for wrapping food or cleaning food surfaces though.

Peter

[alan.holmes]

I don't have any trouble with the Daily Mail, the ink does not stain my fingers and I have used it for wrapping apples when putting them in storage.

Alan

[nmm1]

Well, I am glad that that it has some uses.

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

[John Savage]

Even were the printing processes identical for newspapers and the magazines, you would still find a marked difference in the extent their pages soil your fingers during handling. Most newspapers still use an oil-based ink, the oil being a slow-drying hydrocarbon solvent, and it takes days to evaporate. For the articles in newspapers to be current, they are usually printed on the morning that you read them, meaning their ink has not had a chance to dry. The supplements, on the other hand, are printed days ahead and the solvent in their ink has had plenty of time to dry (almost).

Historically, inks have contained traces of toxic substances, especially the coloured inks, and I expect that in some countries that is still the case. But here in Australia, I have not heard anyone caution against the use of newpapers or magazines for gardens and composting. Presumably, the industry here is regulated to use only non-toxic inks. (The same does not apply to dyes in inks and cosmetics imported from China.)

The search for a more environmentally-friendly printers ink has been a topic of much discussion over the years in our local daily, where invariably the response has been that available water-based inks still have one or more shortcomings in comparison with the traditional oil-based product. Only recently was it announced that an acceptable substitute has been developed.

I don't know whether it's the ink, or the fibrous paper itself, which gives newspaper its recognised capacity to shine window panes and mirrors. Guess I could discover for myself by tearing off a handful of unprinted sheet borders and trying to polish a mirror with them. :-)

I can't address that as I don't know. Maybe someone else can or already has?

Because our fingers (i.e., our skin) secrete both natural oils and also water (perspiration), we tend to get stained by dyes which are soluble in oil (i.e. the stuff from 'permanent' markers) and also by dyes which are soluble in water. The best (or worst) of both worlds, as it were.