shred paper & compost or recycle

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by basquesteve

In my opinion individuals country wide wishing to shred and compost their paper waste(their labour being free) will leave a a far smaller so called Carbon footprint no transport to base, no resultant waste products after processing, a big problem in a centralised system and no logistics and delivery of new product.

In an idealised context that might be reasonable, but in the UK where the majority of the population are urban residents, and where gardens are small or non existent, percentages of households having no outside space ranging from 20% up to 60% in the most densley populated areas, that simply can not work.

Home composting in a small garden is possible but it is inevitable that most people will find the commitment of limited space in the face of competing demands, and the uncertainty of the compositing process going awry with resultant bad smells, flies and/or rodent infestation, being strong disinsentives. Municiple authorities therefore have a choice between collecting for land fill or collecting for recycling. Once the commitment to collection for recycling has been made then the balance of environmental benfit between home compost and collection falls strongly toward collection for all those households on the recycling routes, including those that do home compost.

Recycling of paper is likely to alter the pattern of paper industry practices in the longer term. Where pulp from recycling replaces pulp from new wood, a price benefit develops for the industry to take a lifecycle approach to its products and in consequence there is an incentive to look for printing solutions that involve less costly managemen of ink at the recycling stage.

CM

[Paul mabbott]

Paper and cardboard don't add much nutritionally to your compost - there's no protein in there. However they break down back into cellulose compnents in much the same way that leaves and other foliage do: humus. So, unless you have lots of glossy magazine (dodgy because they may - or may not - have heavy metal-based inks) put as much as possible onto your compost heap to benefit your garden.
However, you have to do it properly: it needs to be mixed in with other, more nutritious, biodegradable material. In the case of cardboard, just lay it out flat across your bin and then add a layer of vegetable or other waste (just grass clippings will do). In the case of newsprint or other, just loosely screw it up and roughly mix it in with your general waste. If you throw in a whole newspaper (or several) it could sit there as a soggy mass for years to come!
My wife tears up all her financial documents and soaks them overnight before putting them into our recycling bag. I just screw mine up and throw them in, working on the principle that it would be a very desperate thief who would rummage through our kitchen waste!

[nightshade]

I shred important papers and compost them, everything else goes in to the council recycling collection.

[Farplace]

Or you could save your newspapers, shred all other paper, and donate it all to a local animal rescue. Personally speaking, we never have enough paper and bedding donated, and it can cost a fortune to buy it in.

[woodbob123]

wiyh ref to donating bedding i have up to 5 bags of wood shaving some weeks all dry clean wood and locally harvested if i have a busy week woodturning, in newport close to J24 M4

[woodbob123]

as a second thought if you contact your local woodturning club you may find they are glad to get rid of shavings and it drys very quickly.

[artdemole]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I shred important papers and compost them, everything else goes in to the council recycling collection.

With you on that one except the composting.All goes in the recycle Wagon Every Monday in P.S.j.