Interesting article. I compost paper. I don't hold with a lot of the arguments against it. Most folks claim that the soy-based inks are 'safe', others claim that any coloured inks are dangerous. No one seems to understand that though inks may be soy-based, the pigments which give inks their colours are still made up of some pretty bad stuff.

I have never tested my compost for toxic residue but can guarantee that if any were found, it'd be damned hard to determine its source. I'm between chemical farmers and a self-styled 'landscaper', So am constantly exposed to their pesticides, insecticides and herbicides. My property is on a street corner so twice the traffic exposure and all the crap that that entails. Lots of stuff inflicting my compost by land, sea and air. So go ahead and tell me that composting paper is creating a toxic waste dump. I still compost paper. EPA has published reports demonstrating that compost is a great filter for toxins, including petrochemical residue. If that's the case, then why worry about peper? Apparently the microherd enjoys chewing through heavy metals and petrochemicals. I ought to find those articles.

Momstar you're funny =:) "Starting a riot"

You didn't say whether or not you compost paper. Do you, or are you wondering if you should?

I personally don't and won't ever, compost paper, paricularly if it's going to be used anywhere near where I grow vegetables. I don't trust agencies who tell us it's safe. I really don't believe the inks they use are as safe as they say. How many times have things in this world been deemed safe, and then years later we're told otherwise?

The part of the article where it mentions " all paper categories have extremely low levels of potential compost chemical contaminants" is enough for me. I have never seen anything that tells us at what point low levels of this chemical and low levels of that chemical, plus more chemicals, become a total unacceptable level of chemicals. I truly believe that the total of them all is slowly killing a lot of people, and other living things.

Also, when they mention documenting benefits that include composting diapers and feminine hygiene products, are they kidding? That's disgusting.

Just my two cents worth =:)

Composting earth worms LOVE newspaper -- either shredded or in big thick water-soaked slabs. These creatures are very sensitive ... I think they'd 'tell us by dying' if newsprint was toxic. People say the same goes for office paper/mail. I only put those things on my compost pile, not with the worms ... but come to think of it, my cold-compost pile is thick with worms, so I guess I feed office paper to them after all. .... Like harebell, I live on a corner on very busy street, my flag, which is out 24/7 gets all black and grungy in just a few months ... so reckon my yard and soil are also 'grunged'. grin and bear it.

momstar ... look at the dates on the references. None of them are from this century.

Since then, paper has become even more recyclable

lazygarden! I hope you are joking about the era of the posts, because you are looking at time of post on 24 hour clock and not the date,

i don't worry about it. i can recycle it, and cause how much carbon and pollution to get into the air by trucking it here there and everywhere (there was an episode of 'Dirty Jobs' where they explained that San Fran's recycleable paper was put on a SHIP and taken to ASIA to get turned back into 'new' paper-wasteful) AND use more chemicals to turn it back into something usable.

i can put it in the garbage, where it'll go to the incinerator and either release toxins into the air or concentrate them in the ash.

or, i can turn it into a comparably small amount of compost and put it on my flowers. the composting is more fun :)

"lazygarden! I hope you are joking about the era of the posts, because you are looking at time of post on 24 hour clock and not the date,"

I don't think Lazygardens was talking about the posts at all, but about the references in the article listed in the first post. The references at the end of that article are from 1989-1995 (all in the 20th century).

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I compost paper but there's cause for some to not.

I'm not sure of all the chemicals and the exact processes that go into making paper but I know they aren't entirely good and healthy. But that's the processing and not what the stuff is made of. I kind of think of it as pure mostly.

Then there are the inks. Newspapers find it lots cheaper to use non-toxic inks because that eliminates the costs associated with haz mat handling and sick employees. American newspapers anyways, have an incentive to use soy based inks and so on. I don't trust anything that might be printed overseas like color inserts made in advance or most boxes with printing.

I have a source of shredded office paper and that's a different problem. Office paper means laser printers and photocopies which means toner as opposed to ink. I've looked at about a hundred MSDS sheets for different black toners and they are all non-toxic. I'm not sure about color though. The problem with toner is it is essentially a plastic. The response I got from Xerox was the paper will compost but the toner will not. I have decided to live with the toner in my compost. I think many will choose not to and I can't blame them. The older I get the more plastic makes me itch.

I don't compost stuff from ink jet printers because I have no idea what goes into those inks. Considering that they either run out too fast or dry up in their cartridges, there's something bad with those inks.

two cents
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There are those that will tell you not to use newspaper, or cardboard, as a base for mulches because they may have dioxins from the bleaching process. The pulps that these papers are made from is not bleached therefore there can be no dioxins from that source. The paper that is bleached, the white typing or copier paper, is washed free of the bleaches used because the bleach would intefere with the adhesives that help hold the paper together.
Since sources other that the USEPA have stated that using paper as a base for mulch or for composting, and the linked report is based more on these studies, those that have great fear of "government agencies" really have nothing to fear from them.

Possible trace amounts of possibly harmful chemicals in paper is the least of my concerns. Have you seen the toxic sludge some people EAT?! Have you looked at what's in the air and in our water? Paper is so far down the list of things to avoid it's not even on my radar.

I can't say that composting things like feminine hygiene products worry me either from an "ick" standpoint. It's only blood and tissue. I just have no desire to attract critters.

I recycle newspaper, because we have curbside pick up for it.

The recycle container can only contain newspaper and thin cardboard.

So the rest of my paper (mostly junk mail) gets shredded and composted. Shredded junk mail is the main brown component of my compost pile outside of the fall leaf season.

nutsaboutflowers,

I have composted newspaper in the past and I intend on composting office paper this year.

I am interested in people's views on the subject though - that's how I came across that report in the first place.

I am with alabamanicole on the "ick" factor of composting feminine hygiene or diapers.

I thought the conventional wisdom was reduce, reuse, recycle and rot, in that order. If a good is already partially processed, e.g., paper pulp, why waste the recoverable portion of the energy and effort that went into processing it?

Thus I recycle newspaper and office paper and vermicompost non-recyclable paper, like tissues, paper towels, and cotton swabs. About the only time I throw away paper products is if I use a paper towel with cleaning chemicals.

How do others approach disposal of paper things?

Government agencies cannot legally claim that there are ZERO levels of X in something. Detection methods are also becoming more and more sensitive,which just means that contaminants are present in everything.

Here's an example. Wheat is a major crop where I live. Chances are that your last pasta meal was made from it. Our soils are naturally high in cadmium and so is the wheat. The cadmium levels are not high enough to be toxic,but certainly high enough to be detected and needlessly worry people.

The part where they say that paper products are lower in contaminants than yard waste should be proof that the risk is exaggerated.

Joe,

None of those things are recyclable here except straight up newsprint, so composting is my only option. I see what you are saying, though. Since I vermicompost, I generally need what little newspaper I get from the free weekly paper they dump unwanted in my driveway every week.

Drhorticulture wrote:

"Government agencies cannot legally claim that there are ZERO levels of X in something. Detection methods are also becoming more and more sensitive,which just means that contaminants are present in everything.
Here's an example. Wheat is a major crop where I live. Chances are that your last pasta meal was made from it. Our soils are naturally high in cadmium and so is the wheat. The cadmium levels are not high enough to be toxic,but certainly high enough to be detected and needlessly worry people.

The part where they say that paper products are lower in contaminants than yard waste should be proof that the risk is exaggerated."
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Well said, I agree completely.

If there was cadmium or chromium or other metals in the colored inks, it would take an awful lot of paper before you could see a measurable increase in the *natural background already present in soils.* All the metals are in there already, and the mass of toner added is miniscule.

That said, I'm with joejarvis on the higher and better use scale. I recycle newspaper that doesn't get used to start the woodstove. Actually I separate out the colored ads and don't put that in the stove either. All office paper goes to recycling. If you don't have recycling available, by all means compost it.

As far as dioxins, 1) the industry has moved away from chlorine bleaching, 2) the amounts formed were miniscule to begin with, and 3) any dioxins formed in a plant still using chlorine, would be divided in some ratio between the paper and the sludge/wastewater from the paper plant. Furthermore, did you know there are detectable (tiny but detectable and higher than in paper) dioxins in fish, dairy products and other foods? They're everywhere. I'm not going to worry about them getting into my tomatoes at toxic levels through compost.

More science on this available on request.

cadmium: It's what's for dinner.