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.
What differentiates a bulb from a perennial plant is that the nourishment for the flower is stored within the bulb itself.…There is something miraculous about the way that a little grenade of dried up tissue can explode into a complete flower.
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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.