Recycle Your Paper..at Home!
Instead of taking your paper down to the local recycling center, try shredding it, composting it and recycling it into your garden.
All types of shredded paper are great for the compost pile, as are a number of other kitchen items which you may not have considered. Check out this list of common household items that will give your compost pile a kick...and save space in the landfill at the same time:
• hair (human or animal)
• pasta (without sauces or oils)
• stale bread
• facial tissues
• peanut shells
• bad wine
• stale beer
• dust bunnies/lint
• clean shellfish shells
• old herbs and spices
• tea bags
• shredded cardboard
And here are some of the "old standards"
• coffee grounds (pick up free bags of used grounds at most Starbucks locations)
• paper coffee filters
• crushed egg shells
• Fruit and vegetable scraps
• Wood ashes
Comments
Here's an excerpt from Earth911.com regarding composting paper:
"Paper products are safe to use in the compost pile. Heavy metals such as nickel, lead and cadmium are a problem in some industrial sludges, and lead used to be a problem in paper. But lead-printing plates were banned in North America over twenty years ago and lead is now at background levels in paper. Numerous tests have been conducted of various grades of mixed paper and the heavy metal levels are virtually the same as a variety of other ingredients. All plant matter contains trace amounts of heavy metals, and the EPA has set limits regarding the concentrations of a variety of metals that can be safely used in the soil. Paper products are well below these levels.
Regarding the inks themselves, the amount of hydrocarbons in the ink is insignificant, and the composting process is widely used as a technique by bioremediation specialists for degrading a variety of hydrocarbons, even gasoline, oil and diesel. The tiny amount of hydrocarbon solvents in paper will be quickly degraded in the compost pile. Soy inks are used not to reduce toxicity of the paper as much as to promote the use of renewable resources over non-renewable fossil fuels. Don’t add hydrocarbon-contaminated soils or motor oil to the composting process. Bioremediation requires extensive testing and rigidly controlled processes."
Read the entire article: http://earth911.com/news/2007/04/02/thirteen-common-myths-of-composting/
Shredded paper sounds like a great idea, but I thought that the potential for lead or other contaminants from the print was a problem, and therefore not a good idea. Does anyone have any current information on this? Thank you.
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