Can I Compost Shredded paper?
(From the Household waste category | 2 comments - join the conversation)
Yes, you can compost shredded paper – as long as it isn’t too shiny.
Shredding and composting documents is a great way to ensure they don’t fall into the wrong hands and it can help soak up excess water if the compost heap is too wet.
Stir it into the heap so it doesn’t get blown around the garden and also to help it rot down quicker in the warmer, wetter middle of the heap.
Shredding paper that has been used for bedding for small pets (such as rabbits) can be composted too, as long as the animals are vegetarian (faeces from meat-eating animals can harbour dangerous microbes that aren’t broken down by the composting process).
Shiny paper though may be that way because of a foil or plastic coating – shiny shredded paper is sometimes used as pretty, protective packaging) but it’s best to leave it out of the compost heap.
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Thank you very much for this information on shredder paper for composting.
I want to use shredded newspaper as a source of “browns” for my compost heap. But our newspapers here are mostly pink (‘Financial Times’ to be precise, newsprint sourced I think from Holomen Bruk’s Braviken mill near Norrköping). Is the pink dye used for colouring the paper toxic to any significant extent?