Jake from Dutchess County, NY emailed me with this question: “Do any of you Wise Gardeners use shredded paper in your compost pile? I keep reading that if I buy a simple $35 shredder I can turn my (mostly b&w) office and junk mail paper into good carbon compost. Sounds too good to be true.” Aside from an occasional tea bag tag, I don’t put paper in my compost pile, so I can’t answer from experience. If anyone reading this has used paper in their compost pile, please answer Jake in the Comments section.
If winter is slumber and spring is birth, and summer is life, then autumn rounds out to be reflection. It’s a time of year when the leaves are down and the harvest is in and the perennials are gone. Mother Earth just closed up the drapes on another year and it’s time to reflect on what’s come before.
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We shred all of our household paper, including cereal boxes, junk mail, newspaper and compost it with great success.
I bought a truckload of “organic” compost once and it was half rejects from an envelope factory, and half output from a beechnut babyfood factory.
I’ts my understanding that only if the ink is something like soy-based ink should you use printed paper in compost for home use. Many inks contain things you do not want in your body or your garden. Personally I put teabags, excelsior, etc in the pile but not newspaper or office paper. Recyclers now take those and that is a safer way to re-use I think. Sorry.
i regularly shred paper for my compost piles. i especially like to use a handful of shredded paper in the bottom of the kitchen scrap canister — makes it much easier to dump into the compost pile since the coffee grounds don’t clump up (as badly) in the bottom of the can.
i don’t shred / use glossy paper because i don’t know whether i should, but b/w paper composts just fine when mixed with the other pile ingredients. a layer of shredded paper + a layer of other stuff to keep the bits from blowing away, turn periodically and i never see the paper again.