I run them through the shredder and compost them.

I try to add them at the beginning of starting a new batch, because they seem to take longer to break down than other sources of browns.

like bpgreen I also run them through my paper shredder and compost them. My shredder is rated up to 10 sheets and it handles pretty much anything I put through it.
Sandy

Yup, I compost paper plates and thin cardboard boxes. I usually drop thicker boxes off at the local cardboard recycle bin.

The paper plates and thin boxes shred fairly easily in my paper shredder. I don't shred the really dirty paper plates.

I just tossed two old huge phone books into my compost pile.

In Canada, those beer cases are what we return the bottles in...they are hardly something to consider throwing away.

But, aside from whatever cardboard you have, it is really not that much to tear up. Taking the carton down to its flatness, it easily tears if you put emphasis on the creases.
A box knife will make short work of it; just lay it on hard surface and swipe it.

Paper plates...you could just assume its small enough as it is and put them into the compost.

But, here....we give cardboard, milk cartons, paper plates, orange juice containers....and their ilk, to the "blue box"....our name for the box that goes out to the curbside for pickup by special trucks that takes it to a recycling station. They frown on seeing material like that in the garbage. Ontario has reduced its "garbage" just in the last half-dozen years, by about 40%.

Besides, our garbage goes to a site in Michigan...and soon, by 2010....no more. By that time, what is in our garbage now will be reduced that much more by 30%.

Reduce, re-use, re-cyle.

what about the glues from these things
and the chemicals from all of the ink and gloss?
im reluctant to start using cardboard and other things because of the glues and inks

Most cardboard and paper packaging is glued with corn starch based glues and most of todays printing inks are soy based inks.

Anything with a glossy coating I recycle. Paper towls, paper bags, cahhdboahd, etc gets shredded by hand and added.

keyword, iowa50126 - "Most"
which is my problem
when i called my newspaper company they said the same.."most" are soy but not all.

I have been composting for just barely a month now, and I am composting all types of dry food, soda, and beer boxes. We buy mostly off brands and I was wondering if these companies use soy based ink or the old nasty chemical stuff. Any help would be mush appreciated!

When I lived in Asheville I had my blue recycling plastic container... stolen :-) That's how bad they wanted to recycle (or not). Now I recycle and compost everything, so in 15 years reduced my trash volume by 95%. It's been about 4 months now since I took a plastic trash bag to the trash container. When you open it, there's "gold" inside which you want to pull out and compost. Egg containers, plants etc.

Unless you are very short on browns or don't have access to recycling... I would keep the printed items from your garden. Yes it will compost down and disappear... you probably won't see any ill effects from it.... plenty of other things will kill yah first.... but why add something that doesn't provide much benefit but has an unknown deficit. From my experience working with the printing industry, even if we say the soy inks are completely fine...most things have a coating of some sort... not just the high gloss types either. If you would look at and smell the raw coatings and inks before they are run and cured (yes I know curing removes some chemicals) ..... you wouldn't want them in your garden by any means.

Good info thanks Nevermore.

Especially if you have access to recycling. That's what they call a 'higher and better use'. The fiber gets reused to make more cardboard, whereas composting would be a last and final use. Better than the landfill but not as good as recycling.