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hackney, paper, Recycling, shredding
Having just recently bought a shredded i went about finding all my old phone bills and the like and set about some serious shredding. My only question now is, what to do with all the paper once done. I have read on the internet that a lot of local authorities frown upon collecting shredded paper as it can be difficult to handle and produce very poor quality recycled paper.
So what about composting, is the ink in the paper bad for the environment. Please help me sort this out as i dont want to have to throw in normal waste.
I compost a lot of non-glossy paper and cardboard. Suitably mixed in with vegetable waste it can make very good compost as I can vouch since I both make it and use it on my small organic farm. Paper and cardboard help give the right carbon:nitrogen ratio of around 25:1 and the shredded nature of your paper gives a large surface area for the microbes to work on with plenty of air spaces so that the process remains aerobic.
I don't think ink is an issue. The amounts are minuscule (especially when you think of all the other pollutants humans pump out all the time) and black inks are in any case largely based on the element carbon which is benign in this form.