"Mycosimian" wrote in message
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On May 1, 4:04 pm, "brooklyn1" wrote:
"Mycosimian" wrote in message

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On May 1, 2:58 pm, "brooklyn1" wrote:



"Billy" wrote in message

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In article
,
starrysmile wrote:

Would it be ok to use brown paper grocery bags for mulch as one would
use newspaper?
Thank you.

Don't use the ones with colored logos on them though, as you wouldn't
use colored ads from the newspaper either.

Colored inks are no more toxic than black ink and inks are no longer
toxic,
haven't been for many years. Years ago inks (like paints) contained
heavy
metals like lead, cadmium, etc. but no longer. Paper/cardboard with
colored
printing is perfectly safe, computer printer ink is safe too... however
can't vouch for what comes from China.

Toner from laser printers and photocopiers contains polymers to help
it adhere to paper and also some carcinogens. These things are
probably less of a risk to you, in your garden, as to people working
in offices full of old printers.

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Everything in excess is toxic, even water. Toner used for printing
evaporates from paper almost immediately so it never gets directly from
the
printed paper into the soil. All sorts of schmutz is in the air and we
really can't do much about that getting into soil... and as long as we
breathe so what. You do realize that soil in of itself is fairly toxic,
try
not to eat too much of it at one time. Truth is our planet is toxic,
that's
why eventually we die, and become soil.

I'm not sure if this is good or troubling news. Good because now I am
less paranoid of that stuff building up in my garden. Bad because I'm
surrounded by toner evaporators at work.

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Well, it's not a good idea to be constantly breathing toner fumes, or any
toxic fumes. But with most we have no control, not in this modern world.
Anyone who drives is sucking in the fumes from the vehicles in front of
them. Probably the best thing you can do is to be working in your garden,
certainly cleaner air than in your office or on the highway. The ink on the
paper you use for mulch is the least of it. These days most of the
colorants used are natural vegetable matter, practically everything we eat
contains natural colorants or is itself a natural colorant. Today most
foods and beverages are colored or they'd be boring shades of grey...do you
really think butter is naturally yellow... if you read labels you'll be very
surprized... that raspberry ice cream is colored with beet juice.