DU gardeners who have composters or compost piles....

[Maddy McCall]

I just got through shredding old exams. I have a garbage bag full of shredded paper.

Can I start a compost pile with it and some leaves? It's all regular xerox paper...but I don't want to do anything that will harm the soil or my plants.

[NV Whino]

1. Paper will decompose

with other organic matter, but I wouldn't add too much. It really has no nutritive value for plants. Vegetable garbage in paper bags works fine, but too many exam papers, though they may be garbage are not great.

[NV Whino]

2. Another thought

Shred them and recycle.

[shraby]

3. You can put pretty much anything in a compost except

animal products like grease, meat leftovers, etc. I put vegetable trimmings, leaves, weeds, halloween pumpkins after halloween, egg shells, coffee grounds, paper, small twigs, grass after mowing. I built one from cement blocks with a layer of patio blocks for a base. Made it about 4 feet high and 4-5 feet by 5-6 feet in size. Holds a lot.<G> After a year or so I have nice black dirt in the bottom. Just remove one side of blocks and dig out the black gold.

Toss in some angle worms and they will help it decompose. I toss them in there when I find them after a rain or find one in the garden while I'm working.

[Maddy McCall]

4. Thanks, everyone...I will recycle them...

and I will start a compost pile with good stuff, in the meantime.

[Rowdyboy]

5. Definitly, compost them SEPERATELY from your vegetable compost...

I used shedded paper beneath a light layer of mulch one year, and it decomposes very slowly (looks pretty nasty even after a year). That was 15 years ago and I never bothered again.

[theHandpuppet]

6. In moderate amounts

It's the ink that has nasty chemicals in it -- the paper itself will decompose.

[miss_kitty]

7. What's in the ink;

what made up the paper?

I know something about paper something about ink and something about compost piles (artist and landscaper, with a horticulture background) a lot of different crap and chemicals go into paper making. same with ink. Paper can be bleached. Ink can have less than desirable ingredients, especially toner, which has fixers to make it dry and adhere to the paper, and usually needs a solvent to move it around on the page, as opposed to water.

When this crap goes into your compost, it may break down to its constituent parts (molecular in size) which may or may not be toxic. Then when you spread it on your plants, they may be able to take this chemicals up through their root system. Some plants do this better than others. If you use your compost on food crops, I would advise against it. For ornamentals, I would not do it BUT it would be less alarming-less dangerous to humans anyway.

[gardenista]

8. You've got lots of carbon there. You need some nitrogen.

Fresh grass clippings, fresh, green plant clippings, manure, etc., should be added for good decomposition.

If it's not soy-based ink, it should probably just be used on ornamentals.

[Maddy McCall]

9. Whatever txerox toner is made of is what is on the paper...

That's why I think I am going to just recycle it.