i will periodically compost shredded paper... phone books... cardboard, etc if i need some dry brown materials... but as others note.. soy inks aren't completely "eco-friendly" to 100%. A very small portion of the inks and the coatings are composed of non-eco friendly based materials. So if you want to be a 100% organic stickler... you should recycle it if you have the ability vs route to your garden. The benefits i would think still outweigh the sliver of negatives... as many things in life are. I opt to recycle as much as possible since many of the printed items (not counting newsprint and phonebooks type media) you receive have an aqueous coating on them... which isn't like the high gloss stuff... but non-the-less isn't good for the ground.

Let me preface my comment with "This is MY opinion and what I do" wertach - I compost cardboard. If I can rip it and it doesn't stretch (like plastic does when you try to rip it) then I compost it. If it is glossy/smooth then I try to tear it or shred it so it will break down faster. I admit that is probably overkill, but it makes me feel better. A side note here, last week I pulled the finished compost out of last year's bin to top dress my planting beds. I had packing/shipping boxes in there early last spring. I remembered to pull off the plastic tape holding the boxes together but I forgot the shipping labels. I found them while spreading the compost, pulled them out and dropped them in the trash. I imagine plastic-coated cardboard would have a similar result. ApexAZ - I compost shredded newspaper. I'm not worried about toxins or heavy metals. The small amount of those items that might (emphasis on MIGHT) be in the paper does not concern me - mostly because a) I don't believe they are used anymore, and b) the small amount that could make it into my compost compared to other items like grass, UCG, leaves, etc. is probably less toxic than sitting on my porch breathing the exhaust from cars as they drive by. I don't put diseased plants, waste from meat-eating animals, meat or dairy products in if I can help it. Just because I don't want to be that careful about getting the temps up. I tend to compost warm and slow rather than hot and fast. It is easier for me. If you are really worried about the toxins in your paper/cardboard then do some research. Find out what company prints your paper or manufactures the cardboard and ask them what kind of chemicals are found in the finished product. Ask the newspaper to give you the material safety data sheets for the ink they use. They will have to have them on file anyway for OSHA requirements. Asking on this forum is going to give you a wide range of opinions from the most conservative to the uber liberal. One member's facts they post are often contradictory to another member's facts. At some point you are going to have to figure out what YOUR composting views/opinions are and settle in for the ride. I can tell you one thing..My way works - for me. YMMV (your mileage may vary)

Newspaper, composted or used as a basis for mulch will not have any adverse affect on what your plants produce. While I have not had to put newspaper in my compost, plenty of other marterials, I have used newspaper as an underlayemt for mulch, to extend what I did have, and found that it helped suppress weed growth, helped maintain soil moisture levels, helped keep the soil cooler, and added needed organic matter to the soil over time. What I have harvested from those planting beds had much better flavor, nothing that could be described as newspaper taste (of course neve having eaten newspaper I'm not sure what it does taste like) then anything from a grocers.

Hi Daniel. Forget about the tomatoes till about February we pulled up the bed at the back fence last week, as they had fruit fly in them, but still have the four around the side near my potting bench ( San Marzano ) and they are going fine, there are heaps of tommys on them just starting to colour now, BUT if the fruit fly dont get them the water will they all split when we get those big thunderstorms. The cherry toms are doing fine they came up out of the compost. I have lots of cucumbers we are eating them now, no trouble with spring onions we have been eating them all year I keep planting another bed as soon as one bed gets to a certain size. Radish is another one I grow heaps of with no trouble and silver beet for the chooks those plants just never die the more you pick the bigger they get. As Mick said up top pumpkins do well, so Tony planted has planted them in little beds where all the mulch is so they are not in the way they go alright here too as do watermelons all the vine crops do well over our summer you just have to watch the mildew. One year I planted rockmelons they grew to a lovely size but tasted salty so never again. Bok choy is another one that grows well over summer, and snake beans but I have never grown them.. As the beds get empty now I plant peas from the dry lentils part of the supermarket and when they get so high I push them under the soil every little helps O I eat the peas first well some of them its good to have a cover crop to enrich the soil for the next planting season....Happy Gardening in your little bit of Paradise.....Cheers..MM.