composting paper?

John,

I have had bad experience with newspaper. After taking great care and effort to use only B&W newsprint ( to avoid heavy metals and dioxens) I lined my compost bin with od papers. I also used them as a weedblock mat under my garden paths. They traped water in my bin and probably restricted airflow. Shreded paper would have been better. They, and sheet cardboard, attracted termites to my bin and paths. I do not recommend their use.

Ed (in Florida)

You don't absolutely NEED to, but there are a few good reasons to do it. In addition to improved air circulation(which improves the composting process), you could have improved access to the compost, to load it into wheelbarrows, buckets, etc. (snip)

if the newspapers you are planning thinking of using use 100% soy ink, then it's ok...but NO colour ads or pages.

cardboard? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!! cardboard consists of several layers of paper GLUED together. that glue would be very detrimental to your compost and would even kill any worms living within the pile.

Paper, inkless or carefully chosen printed paper, can be composted but it should be shredded, and the smaller the shreds the better. It needs to be mixed into regular organic matter in small amounts. You have to look out for bleached, coated, and other types of paper that will add undesirable chemicals into your soil. Cardboard and fiberboard are not a good idea, because they do contain binders, and also because they are often made from recycled paper, and thus contain even more concentrationed contamination. Shreded paper decays in a way similar to hardwood, much slower than things like soft food waste because of the amount of fibers it contains.

A better environmental idea is to allow paper to be recycled appropriately. -=>epm

cardboard is best used as a mulch on a flat, well raked bed. it tiypically disappears within a few months, leaving you with a little weeding to be done in august or so. both slugs and worms eat it. the only caveat is that slugs love to lurk under the cardboard, and could get your seedlings, specially if they are cabbage.

You're getting a lot of inconsistent advice. That's typical of responses from a newsgroup. Here's my opinions.

1. Paper: You don't say if you mean newspaper, or any paper. Newspaper does not compost very well. That's because it has a high lignin content. For the same reason, it is good to put under mulch to help prevent weeds. "Office" paper composts very well.
2. Cardboard: It composts very well. Better than office paper, in fact. Someone also suggested using it as mulch. I also do that. I put cardboard down in the Fall, and then put about 3 inches of shredded leaves on top. By the Spring, everything has broken down pretty well. Several folks said that cardboard contains lots of toxic stuff. I'm not aware of that. None of the scientific composting sites that I rely upon say that.
3. On/off ground. Getting air into compost is important, but that's usually done by turning it. (Turning also mixes it, which is very important). Other than tumblers, I've never seen compost off the ground, and don't know how that would work. I've seen it on pallets, but the space below the pallets fill with compost, so that's really on the ground. One other thing: The smaller the pieces in your compost, the better it works. I recommend shredding leaves. Paper should be shredded or otherwise cut into small pieces.

------------------------------ John Wheeler Washington, DC USDA Zone 7

I took a 'Master Composting' class in Austin a few years ago and they recommended cardboard. Anybody know any studies?

susan

snipped-for-privacy@earthl> if the newspapers you are planning thinking of using use 100% soy ink, then

Hi compostman, Thanks for the advice. I did meat office paper when I refered to paper. In fact the place where I work often shreds 6 or 7 large garbage bags of it every couple of months or so. So that is the stuff I would be looking at.

John

Compostman wrote:

leave a bucket in the coffee room for spent coffee grounds, and when you take home those 6 or 7 garbage bags, take home the bucket also. The mixture will compost well. If you have no coffee, a 2:1 paper/fresh grass clippings will do also, though of course the grass clippings are available only a few times a year and are usable only if they are pesticide-free.

This is very good advice. Coffee grounds are "green" and will aid in the composting of the shredded paper. Don't worry too much about the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio. Compost happens, sometimes faster than others. I keep my compost a little on the dry side, but that's a personal preference. I start each pile with a lot of ground up leaves and coffee grounds and then add a lot of vegetable waste. Because vegetable waste and grass (which I don't have) are very wet, I want to avoid my piles getting too wet.