grocery bags

[starrysmile]

Would it be ok to use brown paper grocery bags for mulch as one would use newspaper? Thank you.

[Mycosimian]

Absolutely.

[starrysmile]

Thanks! Great way to recycle them then.

[len gardener]

g'day starrysmile,

we use any ot those sort of bags to put craps of paper generated in the house, used tissues etc.,. and this all then goes out to our fruit tree growing area and covered with mulch.

around here if it rots it stays and gets used on site.

On Fri, 1 May 2009 08:12:22 -0700 (PDT), starrysmile wrote: snipped With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

-- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand."

[Billy]

Don't use the ones with colored logos on them though, as you wouldn't use colored ads from the newspaper either.

[brooklyn1]

Colored inks are no more toxic than black ink and inks are no longer toxic, haven't been for many years. Years ago inks (like paints) contained heavy metals like lead, cadmium, etc. but no longer. Paper/cardboard with colored printing is perfectly safe, computer printer ink is safe too... however can't vouch for what comes from China.

[Mycosimian]

Toner from laser printers and photocopiers contains polymers to help it adhere to paper and also some carcinogens. These things are probably less of a risk to you, in your garden, as to people working in offices full of old printers.

[brooklyn1]

Toner from laser printers and photocopiers contains polymers to help it adhere to paper and also some carcinogens. These things are probably less of a risk to you, in your garden, as to people working in offices full of old printers.

===========

Everything in excess is toxic, even water. Toner used for printing evaporates from paper almost immediately so it never gets directly from the printed paper into the soil. All sorts of schmutz is in the air and we really can't do much about that getting into soil... and as long as we breathe so what. You do realize that soil in of itself is fairly toxic, try not to eat too much of it at one time. Truth is our planet is toxic, that's why eventually we die, and become soil.

[Mycosimian]

I'm not sure if this is good or troubling news. Good because now I am less paranoid of that stuff building up in my garden. Bad because I'm surrounded by toner evaporators at work.

[Billy]

Newspaper for Mulch in Home Gardens

Slick pages of any paper product are not recommended because some inks in these materials may still contain heavy metals. Most inks now used have organic soybean oil or petroleum as a base. Recycling old newspapers into a mulch material, rather than dumping it in landfills is an environmentally friendly practice.

Hmmm. Not as bad as I thought. I mean the colored sections of the paper, pictures and ads. Just avoid the slick colored sections. God, I feel like a racist but y'all know what I mean.

[Charlie]

the msds link....and.....

For magenta.....

yellow.....

black.......

are the same for each, it appears.

also.....

News to me and maybe worth more investigation. Whadda ya' say, boss?

Damn, it hurts, I tell ya, reeeeaaallly hurts to agree with shel, er brooklyn1. ;-)

Charlie

[FarmI]

Ah memories. I haven't seen a paper grocery bag for 25+ years. I remember them with great fondness.

And yes, you could use then as a weed barrier with a more attractive material on top as a mulch - dunno if you'd actually want to use them as a mulch on their own though.

[brooklyn1]

I'm not sure if this is good or troubling news. Good because now I am less paranoid of that stuff building up in my garden. Bad because I'm surrounded by toner evaporators at work.

=========

Well, it's not a good idea to be constantly breathing toner fumes, or any toxic fumes. But with most we have no control, not in this modern world. Anyone who drives is sucking in the fumes from the vehicles in front of them. Probably the best thing you can do is to be working in your garden, certainly cleaner air than in your office or on the highway. The ink on the paper you use for mulch is the least of it. These days most of the colorants used are natural vegetable matter, practically everything we eat contains natural colorants or is itself a natural colorant. Today most foods and beverages are colored or they'd be boring shades of grey...do you really think butter is naturally yellow... if you read labels you'll be very surprized... that raspberry ice cream is colored with beet juice.

[FarmI]

Why not?

These days printers ink doesn't have the heavy metals like it used to have 'in the olden days' so I can't see any reason not to use any paper with any coloured ink on it.

[FarmI]

Ah drat - I should have read the thread before making a redundant post!

[brooklyn1]

In some cases attractive is not important, and and covering with bits and pieces creates a lot of extra labor. I use any kind of corrogated cardboard in my vegetable garden, I don't care how it looks... covering it with say wood chips would only present a problem in a vegetable garden as it becomes mixed in with the soil.

[brooklyn1]

It's okay, sometimes redundancy is good, enhances credibility credibility.

[enigma]

"brooklyn1" wrote in news:vrKKl.1815$ [e-mail]:

industrial butter is almost white, so yes, it's colored. real butter made from pastured cows is yellow on it's own. the *shade* of yellow depends on the breed of cow (Jerseys have quite yellow butterfat, Holsteins not so much) & the type of forage. if the raspberry ice cream is colored with beet juice, you're buying good ice cream. the cheap stuff uses chemical food colors. i'm making strawberry ice cream for the Miles Smith Farm Kentucky Derby party this afternoon. it has a quart of mashed strawberries (to a gallon of custard base) & it's barely pink... lee

[FarmI]

Agreed, but then we dont' know where the OP wants to put the bags. If he's in suburbia and s/he wants to put in a front garden, then the neighbours might get upset andsome people seem to worry about that.

I use any kind of corrogated cardboard

Also true, but hay works as well, can be tucked around plant stems and doesn't act as a barrier to the rain or sprinkler usage as does large sheets of cardboard. I use paper or cardboard to kill large slabs of weeds but I usually don't let my veg garden get to the stage that I can use large slabs of cardboard. I'm also using an old floor rug made of sisal at the moment to kill a large section of lawn where I want to establish a new flower bed. It's been there about 4 months and has done a great job.

[FarmI]

Ah! More memories! Real butter made by the various Aunts (real and adopted).