In article ,
"Warren" wrote:

Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote:

Well that is great to know. How about laser printer rejects? Is that
ink also safe?

Laser printers don't use ink. "Toner" is melted, and fused onto paper.
That toner can be made of a lot of different things, but usually
includes polyester resins, silicon derivatives, waxes and metals such as
iron oxide. Color toner may contain other metals and plastics to create
the color.

If you have an HP LaserJet printer and you want to know what's in the
toner, you can check-out the Material Safety Data Sheets for the various
toners he

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitiz...ta/ljmsdseng.h
tml

You may note that the toner used in printers built just a few years ago
may differ substantially from toner for newer printers. Generally the
newer toners use smaller particles than the older toners, and that means
different raw materials. Generally toxic materials are avoided because
of the possibility that toner may be inhaled when cleaning the printer.

While I have not read all of the sixty-plus MSDS's for current HP toner,
I would be surprised if you found one with elements that would be
harmful in a compost pile, and certainly not at the levels you would be
putting in to the pile. (A typical printed page only has toner covering
about 5% of the surface area, and your pile isn't going to be mostly
paper, either.) I wouldn't dump loose toner into the pile, though!

IMHO, the residue from the bleaching process used to make the paper
white-white-white is probably more of a concern than the toner fused to
the paper.


Wow that was a lot of information and I really appreciate your time. So
you are saying that, independent of the ink, it is just not a good idea
to be using either laser or injet rejects in the compost because of the
bleach residue?

..