I notice many people use newspapers as composting material. Is there
any danger from the various chemicals in the ink or are newspapers
using soy based inks?
Also I generate a lot of fine wood shavings and sawdust in my wood
working shop. Are these products suitable for the compost pile and
would they count as "brown"?

According to the Humanure Handbook, sawdust is a prime composting material,
as are newspapers IF they are using soy based inks (only the black and white
papers, never color, contact your local newspaper to determine what type of
inks they use). The sawdust is suitable as long as it does not come from
pressure treated lumber (which unfortunately it probubly does unless you
know for sure you are NOT using pressure treated wood). The pressure treated
wood contains toxic chemicals used as preservatives for the wood, which will
not break down in the compost, and could end up in your food and/or
groundwater...

"Allan Matthews" wrote in message
...
I notice many people use newspapers as composting material. Is there
any danger from the various chemicals in the ink or are newspapers
using soy based inks?
Also I generate a lot of fine wood shavings and sawdust in my wood
working shop. Are these products suitable for the compost pile and
would they count as "brown"?

Mike Stevenson wrote:

According to the Humanure Handbook,

Woo hoo! Someone else who thinks highly of that!

Bill
--
Zone 5b (Detroit, MI)
I do not post my address to news groups.

The other problem I have had with FINE dust, like from a sander collection bag,
is that you need to not put it on there in big lumps. they just turn anaerobic
at get nasty and slimy. I usually tried to sprinkle them in along with the
layers of manure, and sort of scratch them in with a rake or fork or something
to break them up.

And, they are right. watch out for the preserved stuff. Some have some pretty
nasty organic poisons in there like Penta, others use metal salts, and in a lot
of cases even arsenic.