How could newspaper help your composting bin?
posted in Recycling Tips |If you are a keen gardener, you will more than likely have a composting bin situated somewhere in your garden. Helping to keep your plants and your soil healthy, compost can be an excellent tool to achieve the best possible results for your garden. However, there is one thing that many gardeners do not understand about their composting bin and that is whether newspaper should be used or not.
Newspaper and Your Composting Bin
When you start to do a little research on newspaper and compost bins, you will find that there are quite mixed responses. Some experts claim that using newspaper in the compost can actually be damaging to your garden because of the ink. However, others claim that no compost should be made without the use of newspaper. So how do you know what to believe?
It is understandable why newspapers do have a bad reputation when it comes to their ink being bad for the soil. After all, when newspapers were first introduced their ink was extremely toxic. However now things have changed quite dramatically in the way that they are produced and the ink is now a lot less toxic.
So you can use newspaper in your composting bin if you would like to, but you will have to take into account the paper that you are using. For example, if you use newspaper, often the paper is quite thin and so that means it will not take as long to decompose. This is excellent news if you are using it in compost, but it is when you use thicker paper that the problems really start.
Magazines can also be used and whilst the paper is thicker, it is still completely safe to use on your garden. However, it will take a lot longer to decompose and so it is much better being used to stop weeds from growing, rather than for your compost.
If you use shredded ordinary newspaper for your compost then you should find that it is better than anything else. It is actually a fantastic source of carbon for the compost and if you are planning on using worms in your compost bin, it can make excellent bedding for them.
When it comes to setting out the newspaper in the bin, you should ideally layer it with things such as weeds and grass clippings as that will help to give you the best compost. If you don’t layer it, it is likely that you will only end up with wet clumpy paper and that would obviously not be ideal.
Another advantage to using newspaper with your compost is that it helps to keep moisture in the soil. This will help to feed your plants as well as stopping the weeds from taking the nutrients that your plants need.
Overall it is understandable that you may be worried about using newspaper in your garden. However, whilst it may have been dangerous years ago because of the toxicity of the ink, it is now perfectly safe and it can actually do your garden some good. So if you have a composting bin, make sure that you add a little shredded newspaper to it every now and again.
Editors’ notes:
NowRecycle.co.uk is a trading style of Plastic Omnium Systems Ltd - a European market leader in waste containment solutions that provides a wide range of waste containers and services including wheeled bins, litter bins, banks, composters and sacks. It is part of the International Plastic Omnium Group, a world leader in contract waste container solutions with worldwide sales of more than £1.8 billion. It employs over 9,000 people in 25 countries, across four continents, in manufacturing and service solutions for the automotive, environment and performance plastic products.
Press Contact: Simon Dutta, N European Marketing Director, Plastic Omnium Urban Systems Ltd
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