toxic compost?

[bulgarianlawyer]

I live in a house and did extensive digging in the yard during last years. With most of the material dug out I made embankments. In order to strengthen these, I planted willows and walnut-trees as I was told that these trees have especially strong root systems and therefore should work well against erosion and landsliding. I buried some meshes to strengthen the embankments but I feel that adding roots to these will make them stronger. Besides these trees are easy to plant, especially the willow. It requires just a stick planted in the soil and then watering for some time.

The trouble is that most of what was dug out is rock and not proper soil. Not only it is barren, but it does not hold moisture. The trees still started to grow but I decided I need compost in order to better the soil. So I started to compost everything that's biodegradable and that includes printed paper. In fact most of it is paper that either got out of my printer or that has been printed industrially.

Then I decided that this compost might be used not only on the willows, but that I might plant beans and other vegetables. However a friend of mine told me that using this compost is not a good idea as the paints used in printing contain lead which is poisonous. Besides printer ribbons are saturated with oil products, which are not metabolised in the human body. Both would be detrimental to one’s health.

Could anyone in the know give me some advise on this please? I wonder whether this compost is good for the willows only, or it could be used on eatable plants as well? I believe that this topic might be of interest not only to me, but to many.

Thank you.

[rainbowgardener]

Are you bulgarian-lawyer because you live in Bulgaria or only bulgarian background? Here in the states printer and newsprint inks have been soy based for some time and are fine for your compost. I would imagine the same is true in Europe, but can't really speak to that.

What you should not use in your compost is full color glossy paper. That stuff is coated and does not break down well.

Printer ribbons? Do your printers still have ribbons? Ours are all ink-jet or laser. The last "oil saturated" ribbons I have seen were on typewriters and most people here are too young to remember typewriters. I think someone elderly must have been advising you. All those things were true thirty years ago.

But do read the Greens/Browns sticky at the top of this section. Along with all the newsprint, you will need some greens (I.e. nitrogen rich, soft, moist stuff). That could be coffee grounds, kitchen scraps, manure, pulled weeds, etc. You don't want your pile to be any more than about 2:1 browns (newsprint) to greens by volume.

[bulgarianlawyer]

Thank you rainbowgardener.

Both. I live in Bulgaria and am of Bulgarian background. Doesn't it show?

Bulgaria is an EU member, so it there are any EU directives on this, they have to apply to it. I have to ask a local printer on this.

Most people over here use ink-jet or laser printers, but I'm a traditionalists. BTW I've heard that laser printers use chemicals and that's why it is not recommended that they are used in living quarters.

Of course the quantity of these oil based products is hardly significant but who knows?

Perhaps I should make two types of compost, just in case: one for eatable plants and other and for the willows.

[toxcrusadr]

Toxins can be absorbed by plants and this is potential exposure pathway. BUT as the Greek scientist/philosopher Paracelsus said long ago, "The dose makes the poison."

Consider a pile of paper. Most of its mass is just that - paper. It has a very small amount of ink by weight. Inks can have heavy metals, or did in the past, but only a portion of the ink would be metallic compounds. The amount of ink on a piece of paper can probably be measured in milligrams, and the amount of metals, if they are present, even smaller.

Then you mix that paper with lots of other materials to make compost. Further dilution. Then you incorporate that into the top few centimeters of soil - futher dilution. Eventually whatever is in that sheet of paper vanishes into the background. And by the way, there is a background level of many metals in most soils. Lead is typically a few parts per million, maybe up to 100 ppm at most.

So, you would have to add huge amounts of this compost over time, and then MAYBE metals could build up to a significant level. THEN they have to be taken up by the plants in amounts high enough to be toxic. Another dilution effect.

Chances are you have nothing to worry about here.

Also, liquid inks do have carriers (solvents) but from what I know they are low toxicity, heavy alcohols that would be biodegradable. Laser printer toner is mostly carbon powder.

I recycle my shredded paper rather than compost, but I would not worry too much about this. You might look into what the EU requirements are and consider leaving out glossy and color printed items in the future, but I very much doubt you have poisoned the ground here at all.

[bulgarianlawyer]

Thank you toxcrusadr,

What you say makes perfect sense and I fully agree with you. But still I would feel more comfortable if one has made an actual experiment composting printed paper with newsprint inks that are not soy based measuring the concentrations and calculating what these would add up in years. Obviously the amounts are slight, however some of the harmful substances tend to accumulate in our organism. Lead is one of these.

As for the printer inks, these present no problem. I might simply switch to laser printer since the ‘ink’ there is not harmful and is mostly carbon. The industrially printed brochures are a problem as I'm constantly bombarded with these. They contain no useful information (nothing but commercials) and the only way to utilize them should be to compost them.

[rainbowgardener]

Do you not have recycling? I compost brown paper and some cardboard, but most of the advertising stuff that comes to my house, including all the glossy stuff, goes straight in the green bin for recycling. We have curbside recycling these days.

I tend to think of Europe as being ahead of us (U.S.) in all things environmental, so I would be shocked to hear you don't have recycling programs.

[toxcrusadr]

I should let our Bulgarian friend comment on this, but from what I know, the former Soviet Bloc nations, in general, were rather delayed in environmental progress for a time, to put it delicately. And, there are plenty of places even in the US where there is no curbside recycling.

Regarding actual experiments, I have not seen research on that but I don't read all the composting and biomass research constantly. it is an excellent idea and chances are someone somewhere has done it. Metals, especially, will build up in soil over time, since they do not degrade or go away.

[bulgarianlawyer]

Do you not have recycling? ...............

I tend to think of Europe as being ahead of us (U.S.) in all things environmental, so I would be shocked to hear you don't have recycling programs.

Yes we do, but it's miles and miles away. It is much easier to dump the paper in the refuse bin. On one hand I don't approve of such wastefulness, but on the other I don't have the patience to go to a place where paper is gathered for recycling. that's how I came with the compost idea and it worked well until I thought of the inks.


Bulgaria is not exactly Europe although it is geographically in Europe and is an EU member.

[Vorguen]

So how is Bulgaria not exactly Europe then?

[toxcrusadr]

I know what he means...we'd think of it as Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Not to paint with too broad a brush, but I am not surprised to hear recycling is harder to come by in Bulgaria than, say, Switzerland.

Off topic but I used to get some really great Bulgarian wines very inexpensively here in the US in the 1980s and early 90s. They've kind of disappeared, I miss them. Forget the label but they made some great stuff for under $5 a bottle. Probably full of lead though. Kidding!

[thanrose]

Hey, Tox, the heavy metals add body!

When I lived in a concrete jungle in my twenties, I had a window box: the only green thing on my block other than a few pots on rooftops. I grew herbs in it, and joked it was a source of trace elements... I never used them for food though.

I understood what our Bulgarian friend said about Europe-not Europe, too.

[toxcrusadr]

Why grow herbs and not use them, is my question... unless they were not eatin' herbs... Never mind!

[thanrose]

Some of them are more tolerant of drying out so are okay in windowboxes. Some are useful in potpourri or bouquets. That other kind of herb gets way too big for a small container.

[toxcrusadr]

I knew that. 6-ft. plants growing out of a window box are not exactly discreet, either.

[bulgarianlawyer]

So how is Bulgaria not exactly Europe then?

Just look at the statistics of the European court of human rights and compare Bulgaria and and say and Germany. But I would not elaborate on this as it would be totally off topic.

[Tilde]

Also, liquid inks do have carriers (solvents) but from what I know they are low toxicity, heavy alcohols that would be biodegradable. Laser printer toner is mostly carbon powder.

So copier-pages with laser toner and printer pages with laser-toner: OK to compost for food gardens?

[toxcrusadr]

The general consensus is, yes.

[PunkRotten]

So is colored newspaper alright too? Just not the glossy paper right?

I have been composting toilet and paper towel rolls. I've noticed this type of glue on it. Is this glue safe?

[toxcrusadr]

I am not sure whether the ink varies depending on whether newsprint is glossy or dull. The finish is in the way the paper is made rather than the ink. That said, different papers may require slightly different ink formulations in order to print and dry properly on each. I tend to recycle my glossy ads just because of the high amount of colored ink, but I don't really have any proof they have metals in them.

Glues are often made from animal hides, hoofs and other byproducts, or from waste tree lignin, which has to be extracted during the papermaking process. Especially for large volume applications, such as paper towel rolls, particleboard/OSB, etc., they are probably looking for something cheap and available, not an expensive solvent based epoxy or something. I would think these kinds of glues would not present a problem and are likely water soluble and biodegradable.

[john gault]

I tend to think of Europe as being ahead of us (U.S.) in all things environmental, so I would be shocked to hear you don't have recycling programs.

Europe is not a country like the U.S. and there's a lot of differences between the various countries in Europe, especially the ones in the east; the establishment of the EU has done little to change this. I've been to a lot of countries in Europe and the way it's portrayed in the media is not representative of Europe as a whole, not even close.

With all our problems we in the U.S. do pretty good in environmental stewardship.


Edit: I did not intend to infer that you thought that Europe was a country with this statement: Europe is not a country like the U.S...