A Question

– Posted in: Miscellaneous
4 comments

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.

About the Author

Kathy Purdy is a colchicum evangelist, converting unsuspecting gardeners into colchicophiles. She gardens in rural upstate NY, which used to be USDA Hardiness Zone 4 but is now Zone 5. Kathy’s been writing since 4th grade, gardening since high school, and blogging since 2002. Find her on Instagram as kopurdy.

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.

~Monty Don in The Complete Gardener pp. 142

Comments on this entry are closed.

Lisa April 16, 2003, 9:00 am

We shred all of our household paper, including cereal boxes, junk mail, newspaper and compost it with great success.

Jim O'Keefe April 15, 2003, 9:25 am

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.

Judy Miller April 14, 2003, 1:00 pm

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.

erica April 14, 2003, 1:00 pm

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.