Can anyone give me a good reason?

I keep hearing over and over "I compost all paper but the shiny stuff."

I don't know about you, but a big part of the paper I want to compost *is* the shiny stuff. So, what is it? Different ink? Breaks down slower? Carries anthrax? Please tell me before I commit arson and burn it all.

Ghak! I heard burning it is WORSE!

I may be wrong but think it doesn't break down as quickly as well as adding vile stuff to the soil.

I bet someone smarter can one up me on that answer... LOL

My 2 cents for what it's worth is to go ahead and compost it IF you aren't using the compost in the food gardens. Black ink is soy based, the colors aren't, and there is some kind of chemical used for the slick feel. Burning would release these chemicals in the air. Are there any paper recycle bins near you? We put the colored pages and magazines in them. I'm not an expert.

Zanymuse got it in one. Heavy metals are use in the process of making colored ad paper. I just sort the colored ads into a seperate pile and drop off at the newspaper recycle box. It's only been recently, in the last 10 years, that a lot of newspapers have gotten on bandwagon by going to more earth friendly dyes used in printing ink and recycled paper pulp reused for more newspapers.

That's what I was looking for. Thanks!

You sure don't want the shinny paper in with the compost, because it is death to the worms when the heat from the compost break down leaves a smelly slick pasty like substance in a segreated section in the compost, and you start losing worms.Mike

One of the things that's added to some of those types of specialty papers is actually a type of clay - you can never tell what may be in those things, in addition to all the metals.

Well, clay is something I already have in abundance, lol - I've never seen so much clay in my life. And who thought to make it gold, fer cryin' out loud??? Sheesh.

Besides with heavy metals, not only can your worms glow in the dark, so can you, if you use that compost on your veggies. What a deal?

Midnight 'mater harvests?? I am still trying to figure out what to do with the hoses I have that have lead in them.....the LAST thing I need is to worry about my compost - eeeek!!

Um, they make good tree staking ties, just don't tie them tight.

What kind of hoses have lead in them? How does one know if they do or don't? Never heard of this before but am interested. I never thought I would have to worry about the water in my garden hoses getting contaminated from them! What next?!

There was an article earlier this year about hoses, some company ran a test (I'll have to dig around and see if I can find it) and found that there are a number of hoses out there with lead in the coverings. It may have something to do with their country of origin, but I can't recall. I'm off to find it.

OK, found a news article on it. I do remember now they said it was OK to water your garden, but not to drink from the hoses. Seems it would be OK as long as it's not a veggie garden:
http://wcco.com/consumer/garden.hose.hoses.2.368819.html

This message was edited Dec 14, 2007 6:49 PM

Thanks for finding the info, dryad. Most of the watering I do is for my vegetable gardens. I'll sacrifice flowers for my veggie's any day. During a drought a few years back I told my husband he had to wait on having his clothes washed. The tomatoes came first! LOL! Well I think most of my hoses had tags that said they were safe for drinking so I should be OK. They also mentioned in the article that if you let the water run then any lead build up from water sitting in them would be diluted. So to be safe I will just run them a little in the lawn before watering the vegetable garden.

yeah Gardadore, I let mine water my salvias for a little while and then on to the flowers and veggies, and then promptly checked the stuff I was using for my clients (fortunately I'd popped money for those and read the labels without knowing I should have looked for that, and got lucky). For my yard I was stubborn and only watered my lawn twice this year - opting to let it get a little over-long instead. The only problem we had was the little 5# dog didn't care for the grass being so long - it tickled her little behind - LOL!

Does the fronts of cereal boxes, etc. have the same things in them the shiny paper does. I try to not use the shiny paper, but I do use the cereal boxes, etc.

Thanks pagancat for starting a new thread about the shiny stuff we were talking about before. Are you having the same problem with tree we are having here in AL? I ordered several fruit trees from Petals From the Past that were to be shipped Dec.11 but they e-mailed me that the trees haven't gone dormant yet, because of our warm weather. By the way I don't shred my newspapers I just fold them in half and layer them. I am afraid to use the shiny stuff. My Mom left me a paper shreder so I may try that this spring.

This message was edited Dec 28, 2007 6:05 PM

Hi fbded - nope, we've gotten some really chilly weather, so just about everything is down for the cold stuff, here.

Yeah, I don't waste the energy on newspapers, either - they break down pretty quickly anyway, but I do shred mail, except the envelopes that have the little plastic windows in them.

loraine, the cereal boxes are a type of cardboard, and worms love them.Mike