Can You Compost Paper?

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I’ve received a number of emails about this recently, and you’ll be happy to learn that you can definitely compost paper.  Paper’s quite high in carbon (burns easily, doesn’t it?), which is good when you have what seems like endless amounts of food scraps and not enough browns in your pile to balance it out.

I recommend recycling paper as a first choice, but if it’s a document that has my name or other sensitive information on it, I’ll give it to my worms to lay around in and munch on.

A few quick tips:

-Stick to using white paper and newsprint.  Colored and glossy paper run a risk of containing toxic heavy metals.

-Shred the paper and distribute it throughout your pile.  Shredding is necessary, as paper gets clumpy if you put it in whole.  Further, soak the shredded paper in a bucket of water overnight before you add it to speed up decomposition even further.

That’s about it!

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