If it is just grease proof paper - in. If it is plasticized - out. Test the paper by tearing. If it is plasticised it will not tear easily like plain paper. Alternatively put one in and see what happens.

The paper that wraps greasy foods such as butter, or margarine, is meant to keep the grease inside the package and keep moisture out, so it is not very digestable in the form you see it. However, like Oak leaves if this is made into smaller bits and pieces it may be more easily digested by the bacteria in the compost pile. What I have seen, even today, is the sticks of margarine wrapped in waxed paper, not any plastic, yet.

I like the attitude "If you have absolutely NOTHING better to do [do it]."

I tear up things into little pieces all the time. Doesn't seem like a waste of time to me....I do it while waiting for my computer to start up, while waiting for web sites and pages to load. I have a fast internet connection, but there is still enough of a wait. A shredder would be faster; so would just tossing in the pile. But I don't feel like replacing my shredder right now, and I'm not in a race or anything....

For the record, I have officially started putting in the butter wrappers. I also realized the sacks my flour come in are just plain paper, and tossed that in too. It is amazing what you can find that is biodegradable if you just keep an open mind. And I thought I was pretty clever for tossing in toilet paper rolls.

I am a rather lazy composter, I throw in all kinds of stuff whole that I should probably shred. I just fling it back in the pile if it doesn't break down.

I shred my toilet paper tubes. I have started putting butter wrappers in the pile...but I wonder if I shred them maybe I wouldn't have to oil the shredder! Now there's a tidy bit of reduce, reuse, recycle.

I compost Q-tips too.

I save butter wrappers in the fridge until I have four or five dozen, and then use them for making cupcakes. It takes a while to fold them so they turn out round and have all those wrinkly things along the edges. But well worth the effort, I say.

LMAO! I never claimed I wasn't crazy! (Quite the reverse.)

Well I don't make cake cases - too much crimping and ironing involved, david52. But seriously, I do keep them in the fridge for greasing cake tins before baking and also to cover things in the oven which I don't want to burn..... then I compost them ....

Annpat, you do not have to tear that paper into small bits if you do not want to, but as I stated doing so will help the bacteria digest them faster. Simple concept, the smaller the bits and pieces but into be composted the faster they will compost, all else being equal.

How much butter do you consume that you are bothered with it wrapper? (thing about cholestrol and your health first then about rour garde. LOL)

I would rather concentrate on things that have some measureable quantity to make sense composting and you know that they will. I put egg shells in the compost(cholestrole again !!grin ), crumbled. although they do not break down(as fast as I would like) but I don't care. they can exist in the garden soil like alot of small gravels and stones.

So it is a personal thing , I suppose, and there is no right or wrong there. Partly it is also a mental thing as well and some of those pactices do not have a practical value.

(I knew this thread was going to get me in trouble. Plus, I'm probably wrong, so I should keep my mouth shut.)

I'm always worried that this forum actually discourages new composters by turning the process into some huge worriment. I turned my oldest pile the other day and it's ready! There was some unfinished stuff. So what? The stuff is going in my garden when I need it, ready or not, and I'm going to incorporate my second oldest batch, too, when I'm planting next month. I'm going to fork this stuff in and I'm never going to go looking for it again.

So what if there's an eggshell remnant lurking beneath the soil? Any of you with a worm bin know how much a colony of worms like to curl up in a little eggshell half. If you crush your eggshells, you wouldn't know it. Anyway, if you have a worm bin, leave a couple of eggshell halves in and pick one up a month later. It will be filled with a big slimy ball of woven worms. They also like to congregate in lobster claws. And clam shell halves.

While it seem reasonable to think that the "Microherd" prefers a piece of butter wrapper that it can hold in its hands while eating, I wonder how much it matters.

And, here's where I'll offend. So everybody stop reading. I always kind of think that there are three types of composters. Hobbyists, Lifestylers, and Engineers. Hobbyists carefully measure their browns and greens and they spend a lot of time preparing their feedstock prior to putting it outdoors to rot. Lifestylers don't have to breath down the neck of their compost, because they've always got a batch curing. Their spare time is spent gathering compostables. They're inside washing the compost bucket, while the hobbyist is still cutting up his plantain.
The Engineer (these usually are non-gardening men) hook up microherd powered washing machine motors to a thermostatically controlled gyroscope base upon which their bin rests. When internal temperatures reach 124.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the bin turns and the contents are lightly misted if a water probe indicates moisture levels have dropped beneath 21.7%. Engineers always have some ingenious, mechanical, way of sifting compost. They keep their compost in windrows.

Some of you are hobbyists by necessity. You are forced by circumstance to have to compost in buckets and garbage cans. Your space is limited. Time is critical, because at the end of the month, you're going to run out of room for your compostables. I'll make a new category for you. HOA Composters. You are the only category who might greatly benefit, in my opinion, from regurgitated compost offerings.

Seriously, if you enjoy cutting stuff up, go ahead. But, if your thumbs are sore or you're getting carpal tunnel, or you need to do some gardening, don't feel that you need to spend your time that way.

"thermostatically controlled gyroscope base"

Slaps hand against forehead...Why didn't I think of that?

"temperatures reach 124.7"

starts turning at 153.3 turns off at 124.7 just to clarify the correct settings

"moisture levels have dropped beneath 21.7%"

42.3% actually and automatically turn off at 53.7%.

I for one an not offended at all, I love it!

I would imagine that most people of average (or above average) intelligence reading the forum can determine which of those of us that, are perhaps, a wee bit over the top so to speak.

One group I believe that is also out there is the "holier than thou" group. This one has determined that there is one, and only one, possible method to achieving composting nirvana and all others are wrong. These people are so into black and white, that color TV offends them.

Have I offended anyone? Oh well, c'est la vie.

Lloyd

I'm telling you, LLoyd! Bread does not belong in the compost pile, and anyone who says it does, is wrong! I don't know how much more black and white I can be about this. And yet, there still seems to be confusion.

LOL. Right on AnnPat, My motto is keep it simple.

"I'm always worried that this forum actually discourages new composters by turning the process into some huge worriment."

"I'm telling you, LLoyd! Bread does not belong in the compost pile, and anyone who says it does, is wrong! I don't know how much more black and white I can be about this. And yet, there still seems to be confusion."

....and this is where I get myself into trouble, but oh well, here goes anyway. annpat, I know your long-standing bread joke is this fun thing for old-timers here to laugh about, but in fact, it confuses a lot of newbies. More than one person has asked whether people are serious about it, and more than one has done searches here on the subject. Can't we....ahem....compost that joke? I know, I know, here's where everyone starts giving me evil looks and suggests that I pack up my compost pile and get out of Dodge before sundown. :(

I don't think that bread thing is a joke to annpat...she means it. Ergot, you know.

Well, I thought I was a "Lifestyler" until I read that bit about washing the compost bucket. I can't remember when I washed mine last, November maybe. I keep a foot operated flip top lid waste basket outside my back door as my bucket and in winter it usually kinda all slides out in blocks. Maybe if I lined it in butter wrappers...

Oh yah, butter wrappers. Toss 'em or tear 'em just try 'em and see.

tj

"I would rather concentrate on things that have some measureable quantity to make sense composting and you know that they will."

Actually, I don't compost primarily for the end result, as I can get truckloads of really nice compost from the municipal center for practically free, made from the collected leaves people set at the curb. The main reason I compost is to keep trash out of the landfill, but I certainly don't want a bunch of un composted trash in the compost that I DO make. So while I don't generate that many butter wrappers, I would prefer to compost them than throw them in the trash, because everything I throw away has to get trucked to a landfill, and it all ads up over my lifetime.

Every little bit helps.

(My cholesterol levels are fabulous by the way. LDL is low and HDL is high. I only eat butter for spreads, no margarine!)

I can't believe that lynxe thinks I'm joking. Wouldn't that be awful, though, if it did happen? If some former poster (who no one remembers) showed up here and beat some not-very-funny-to-begin-with joke to death? And never let up?

That would drive me crazy.

To the newcomers: I don't want you to be confused. You cannot compost bread. Well, you can, but it will make you sick if you do.

Dear Annpat,
i was confused and quite scared about the bread i already added to my compost.
I found out quickly it was all a "personal preference thing"
but at first i was scared to death i polluted my pile.
you seem so sweet, ah... , opinionated...Ah ...honest in your beliefs and straight forward in your convictions...
but you really gave me a scare.I really want to help mother earth not add to the problem.
but I know you are a good person by all your post. so...
add a little smiley face when it might be appropriate.
NO harshness intended.
also i've never seen a trace of moldy bread when i turn my piles ( thank goodness)
Laura

I wasn't adding bread to my piles for a while, and had to do a search to figure out why I had decided that. After figuring out it was a personal aversion I no longer worry about it.

I don't post much but I've been around long enough to know annpat doesn't like soggy bread. I remember the days when the SCM forum had a conversation side and Spike would send people to disney land. I cold compost and will put almost anything in if I think it will break down. It might not be the best way but it works best for me and the time I have to spend tending a pile.
jim_6b

I think jim meant to say, "I cold compost and will put almost anything in, except bread---of course!---if I think it will break down."

jim, same here!

jim, you've been around a long time. Did you spend any time at Conversations? (I just had Easter breakfast with my brother, Jim.)

I think someone is trying to put words in my mouth. Since I know that bread will eventually break down after a long, soggy, moldy, soldier fly infested process I have to admit that yes I do put bread in my compost and a lot of other things I won't mention. I made a wood frame with some wire fence that has 1/2 inch holes and I use that to remove the large peices. All of the small stuff goes into my garden.
I have been here for a while and did spend a lot of time on the conversation side. I registered in 2004 but for several years before that I spent a lot of time lurking and learning at SCM. I can't believe the conversation side lasted as long as it did with some of the things they use to talk about. I would like for them to bring it back as long as topics didn't get heated and nasty like they use to. They have a HOT TOPIC forum for that.
jim_6b

I haven't been here in quite a while, and find it nice, that bread is still a no no to Ann. ;)

I no longer put bread in. Takes way to long to break down. My compost moved again, and I followed. LOL

Now, I wish I had more of it, cause the soil here sucks.

Moni

Moni, I, too, have moved my compost several times---the most memorable being the time I unexpectedly found myself at my former husband's house shoveling the pile, that I'd had to leave behind six months before, directly into the carpeted back of my little Ford Escort station wagon. The compost pile---worms, microherd and all piled high up against the windows and back seat. My car was never the same, but I felt better than I'd felt in months.

(I heard later that my husband laughed when he came home and saw the crater I left.)

I suppose the butter gives the planerians something to put on their soggy bread, eh?

Good to see ya here Moni, I don't spend much time in the worm forums any more.

Bob

I shred my toilet paper tubes.

You know you can make these into little seedling pots or collars :)

I keep toilet paper tubes whole to aid aeration. I don't usually see them again after a turn or two of the pile.

I'm showing the ford escort comment to my DH, who comments at least once a month that I use my ford taurus sedan as a truck.

(...and what is your point, exactly???)

I'm a cold lifestyler, as well, and I guess I missed the part about washing C-buckets.

fwiw, birds get my bread.