[USCC] Fw: shredded office paper as carbon source

[John Cossham]

Hi Mike from Toronto with loads of foodscraps.

I use office shredded paper with my fruit and veg compost... I only have
about 100kg/week, and the paper really helps, and in my static heaps, the
worms love it.

However, a heap with just foodscraps and paper will become very compacted
unless you turn it regularly.  I add shredded twigs and the coarser fraction
of my sawdust from my logging ops (two smoke-free woodstoves yay!) which
help keep the piles open and aerated.  However, once they've been rapidly
hot composted (with turning)  I leave the pile to sit and wait at which time
the worms invade the pile.  A pile with paper attracts far more worms than
one without.

So, do use paper.  Don't worry about the printing on the paper, as the vast
majority of printing these days is with non-toxic inks based on maize and
soya, or black print based on carbon.  Glossy paper has a thin film of
kaolin clay which will make the paper compost more slowly and adds more
bulk.  In the 'olden days' some printing inks contained metals but it is too
expensive to do this now, and renewable materials are more easily available.

John, York, UK