Anonymous wrote:

My reading on
composting tells me to rely on a hot compost pile and a long aging cycle
(at least 1 year) to detoxify darn near anything that might get dumped
into the pile. Even diesel fuel, PCB's and DDT vanish (IIRC, PCB's need 2
years aging).

Be careful about what you read. Composting will never remove heavy
metals which are present in the color sections of newspapers and most
organic waste from the top of the food chain. They are toxic and are
never removed by composting. Composting never removes elemental toxins,
it can just convert molecular toxins. Also, don't be mislead about the
high temperatures of composting. Even incinerators don't break down all
toxic waste into harmless substances. That is why so many people are
objecting to having waste incinerators in their neighborhoods.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Visit my Rhododendron and Azalea web pages at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman/rhody.html
Also visit the Rhododendron and Azalea Bookstore at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman/rhodybooks.html
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

Anonymous wrote in message news:pan.2004.01.14.01.35.59.957934@notarealserve r.com...

My city does not ... but even if they did, I would not be donating my
scrap paper to them. I would still compost it, as I do now. My reading on
composting tells me to rely on a hot compost pile and a long aging cycle
(at least 1 year) to detoxify darn near anything that might get dumped
into the pile. Even diesel fuel, PCB's and DDT vanish (IIRC, PCB's need 2
years aging).

Bill

So....your compost heap/unit is self contained, sealed off from the groundwater?

Linda H., composter of paper

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote:

Be careful about what you read. Composting will never remove heavy
metals which are present in the color sections of newspapers and most

--SNIP--


While back, there was a gent who posted calling himself "Jim the
Compost Man." Really knew his stuff, I learned a lot from him.
Wish he was still around! Anyway, he addressed this issue. I
have it saved off and thought I'd re-post it. He addressed
colored paper and soy inks as well.

Below, he says there have -not- been heavy metals in the colored
sections of newspapers (or North American paper in general) for
many years, contradicting what you wrote above. He's not around
to ask for a citation, but you are. ;-)

Could you tell me how you know there are currently heavy metals in
colored sections of newspapers?


Regards,

Max



Subject: Composting with Newsprint?
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 23:25:47 -0500

Natalie(and others)wrote:
Don't use pages that have colored pictures or spot color on them
however, since the inks used in some 4-color processes contain
heavy metals.

Hi Natalie and Jason,

Ever since lead printing plates were banned in north Americal over
twenty years ago, the amount of heavy metals in newsprint, magazines,
and colored inserts are at background levels and are not a concern in
compost or the garden based on EPA regulations. No organic gardening or
farming association anywhere prohibits the use of colored paper in
compost.

Years ago, and in other parts of the world where lead printing plates
are still used, the lead levels are high and a serious problem, but not
in north America. Cadmium is used in yellow inks in concentrations of
concern in dyes used for plastics, but not in printing on paper.

Please do not pass on this myth since there is no evidence to back up
this assertion that colored paper contains heavy metals at levels to be
a problem in the garden. I have seen dozens of heavy metal tests on
paper products, including magazines and colored inserts and all of the
tests are the same as ordinary compost.

Regarding using soy based inks rather than oil based inks is another
common bit of folklore. First, the concentration of hydrocarbons is
nearly undetectable in oil based inks and composting is the recommended
TREATMENT for many hydrocarbons including oil, gasoline, hydralulic
fluid, and diesel in concentrations thousands of times higher than found
in paper.

The move toward soy inks is to reduce the use of fossil fuel based ink
with a renewable ink, and is a good environmental step. But it has
nothing to do with any real biohazard in the paper from the
hydrocarbons.

The bottom line is that all north american paper products are safe to
use in composting, as a mulch and in the garden and there is absolutely
no evidence I am aware of to the contrary.

Jim the Compost Man

NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.60.117.2
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de 1074182827 14928936 204.60.117.2 ([143276])
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: kermit!newsfeed-east.nntpserver.com!nntpserver.com!priapus.visi.co m!orange.octanews.net!news.octanews.net!news-out.visi.com!petbe.visi.com!news.tele.dk!news.tele .dk!small.news.tele.dk!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!204.60.117.2!not-for-mail
Xref: kermit rec.gardens:261929 rec.gardens.edible:66818

Max wrote:

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote:

Be careful about what you read. Composting will never remove heavy
metals which are present in the color sections of newspapers and most

--SNIP--

While back, there was a gent who posted calling himself "Jim the
Compost Man." Really knew his stuff, I learned a lot from him.
Wish he was still around! Anyway, he addressed this issue. I
have it saved off and thought I'd re-post it. He addressed
colored paper and soy inks as well.


That was Jim McNelly. Funny, as I was reading this thread I was thinking
about him and would have posted but you beat me to it. His sig used to be
"nature mulches, man composts". Anyhow, I googled him in the groups and you
can find him at www.composter.com.

Scroll to the bottom and click on the Joy of Composting.

Mary

User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.3b1 (PPC Mac OS X)
Message-ID:
Lines: 19
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 01:00:14 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.74.68.209
X-Complaints-To:
X-Trace: newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net 1074214814 67.74.68.209 (Thu, 15 Jan 2004 17:00:14 PST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 17:00:14 PST
Path: kermit!newsfeed-east.nntpserver.com!nntpserver.com!priapus.visi.co m!orange.octanews.net!green.octanews.net!news.octa news.net!cox.net!news-xfer.cox.net!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthl ink.net!newsread2.news.
pas.earthlink.net.POSTED!f15002db!not-for-mail
Xref: kermit rec.gardens:261961 rec.gardens.edible:66820

(Max) wrote:

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote:
Be careful about what you read. Composting will never remove heavy
metals which are present in the color sections of newspapers and most

Could you tell me how you know there are currently heavy metals in
colored sections of newspapers?

I don't know which papers they are in. I do know that the color inks
with heavy metal pigments are still being made and sold. Nontoxic color
inks are also being made and sold, but they have serious problems with
fading. I don't know the relative quantities at this point in time.
Unless you contact the printer of your local newspaper, you can't be
sure which ink you are getting. Most use some of each.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote in message .. .
(Max) wrote:

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote:
Be careful about what you read. Composting will never remove heavy
metals which are present in the color sections of newspapers and most

Could you tell me how you know there are currently heavy metals in
colored sections of newspapers?

I don't know which papers they are in. I do know that the color inks
with heavy metal pigments are still being made and sold. Nontoxic color
inks are also being made and sold, but they have serious problems with
fading. I don't know the relative quantities at this point in time.
Unless you contact the printer of your local newspaper, you can't be
sure which ink you are getting. Most use some of each.



Alright Stephen, enough prevaricating.

In this post, http://tinyurl.com/2ek9b, a guy who works in the
composting biz professionally, with cities and counties, says
you're wrong.

I said, "Stephen, hey this guy seems to know his stuff and he
says different, colored paper is OK to compost. How do you know
it isn't?" Your reply above seems only to say, "because I know."

One more time, HOW do you know?

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote in message .. .
(Max) wrote:

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote:
Be careful about what you read. Composting will never remove heavy
metals which are present in the color sections of newspapers and most

Could you tell me how you know there are currently heavy metals in
colored sections of newspapers?

I don't know which papers they are in. I do know that the color inks
with heavy metal pigments are still being made and sold. Nontoxic color
inks are also being made and sold, but they have serious problems with
fading. I don't know the relative quantities at this point in time.
Unless you contact the printer of your local newspaper, you can't be
sure which ink you are getting. Most use some of each.



Alright Stephen, enough prevaricating.

In this post, http://tinyurl.com/2ek9b, a guy who works in the
composting biz professionally, with cities and counties, says
you're wrong.

I said, "Stephen, hey this guy seems to know his stuff and he
says different, colored paper is OK to compost. How do you know
it isn't?" Your reply above seems only to say, "because I know."

One more time, HOW do you know?

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote in message .. .
(Max) wrote:

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote:
Be careful about what you read. Composting will never remove heavy
metals which are present in the color sections of newspapers and most

Could you tell me how you know there are currently heavy metals in
colored sections of newspapers?

I don't know which papers they are in. I do know that the color inks
with heavy metal pigments are still being made and sold. Nontoxic color
inks are also being made and sold, but they have serious problems with
fading. I don't know the relative quantities at this point in time.
Unless you contact the printer of your local newspaper, you can't be
sure which ink you are getting. Most use some of each.



Alright Stephen, enough prevaricating.

In this post, http://tinyurl.com/2ek9b, a guy who works in the
composting biz professionally, with cities and counties, says
you're wrong.

I said, "Stephen, hey this guy seems to know his stuff and he
says different, colored paper is OK to compost. How do you know
it isn't?" Your reply above seems only to say, "because I know."

One more time, HOW do you know?

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote in message .. .
(Max) wrote:

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote:
Be careful about what you read. Composting will never remove heavy
metals which are present in the color sections of newspapers and most

Could you tell me how you know there are currently heavy metals in
colored sections of newspapers?

I don't know which papers they are in. I do know that the color inks
with heavy metal pigments are still being made and sold. Nontoxic color
inks are also being made and sold, but they have serious problems with
fading. I don't know the relative quantities at this point in time.
Unless you contact the printer of your local newspaper, you can't be
sure which ink you are getting. Most use some of each.



Alright Stephen, enough prevaricating.

In this post, http://tinyurl.com/2ek9b, a guy who works in the
composting biz professionally, with cities and counties, says
you're wrong.

I said, "Stephen, hey this guy seems to know his stuff and he
says different, colored paper is OK to compost. How do you know
it isn't?" Your reply above seems only to say, "because I know."

One more time, HOW do you know?

My reading on
composting tells me to rely on a hot compost pile and a long aging cycle
(at least 1 year) to detoxify darn near anything that might get dumped
into the pile.

It only takes about 1 month to compost a few inches of paper in a worm
composter. I've figured that if the worms are alive and healthy then
the compost can't be too bad.

My reading on
composting tells me to rely on a hot compost pile and a long aging cycle
(at least 1 year) to detoxify darn near anything that might get dumped
into the pile.

It only takes about 1 month to compost a few inches of paper in a worm
composter. I've figured that if the worms are alive and healthy then
the compost can't be too bad.

My reading on
composting tells me to rely on a hot compost pile and a long aging cycle
(at least 1 year) to detoxify darn near anything that might get dumped
into the pile.

It only takes about 1 month to compost a few inches of paper in a worm
composter. I've figured that if the worms are alive and healthy then
the compost can't be too bad.

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 07:22:37 -0800, Tallgrass wrote:



So....your compost heap/unit is self contained, sealed off from the groundwater?

Linda H., composter of paper

I am relying on research conducted by others (read
http://www.humanmanure.org for details). I don't make a practice of using
my compost pile to get rid of excess PCB's but I feel I can rely upon it
to dispatch all the contaminants it is likely to see in normal use.

It's not a fetish, it's a garden on the edge of a major city.

Bill

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 15:05:44 +0000, Stephen M. Henning wrote:



Be careful about what you read. Composting will never remove heavy
metals which are present in the color sections of newspapers and most
organic waste from the top of the food chain. They are toxic and are
never removed by composting. Composting never removes elemental toxins,
it can just convert molecular toxins. Also, don't be mislead about the
high temperatures of composting. Even incinerators don't break down all
toxic waste into harmless substances. That is why so many people are
objecting to having waste incinerators in their neighborhoods.

I AM careful about what I read. And that's why I'd like you to define what
you mean by "organic waste from the top of the food chain". If you are
referencing human waste (as it seems you might be), then I think you are
fully mistaken.

Even if there are heavy metals in the ink (a point still open to
contention), there is darned little ink on a page and only a TINY fraction
of that would be the actual offending metal. Moreover, composting does
bind up elemental toxins into safer compounds ... they, after all, are the
building block of 'molecular' toxins.

I have a great deal of confidence in the effectiveness of the microbiology
of a compost pile. While I would not lace it with strychnine and then dine
on it directly, that's because I don't deliberately eat compost directly
under any circumstances. I would be completely willing to dose a fresh
pile, compost it as per my usual custom and then use it in my garden after
a 2 year aging period.

Bill

The office paper where I work is great for compost...Almost as much %^#@ as
Black Kow Manure....1.0-1.0-1.0.



"Anonymous" wrote in message
newsan.2004.02.12.05.29.36.393554@notarealserver .com...
On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 07:22:37 -0800, Tallgrass wrote:



So....your compost heap/unit is self contained, sealed off from the
groundwater?

Linda H., composter of paper

I am relying on research conducted by others (read
http://www.humanmanure.org for details). I don't make a practice of using
my compost pile to get rid of excess PCB's but I feel I can rely upon it
to dispatch all the contaminants it is likely to see in normal use.

It's not a fetish, it's a garden on the edge of a major city.

Bill