Composting Newspaper

Composting Newspaper / What's Compost

Composting has numerous advantages. It is the main requirement for healthy planting. It can take place almost anytime even without exerting effort.

Composting, often described as nature’s way of recycling, is the biological process of breaking up of organic waste such as food waste, manure, leaves, grass trimmings, paper, worms, and coffee grounds, etc., into an extremely useful humus-like substance by various micro-organisms including bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes in the presence of oxygen.

Actinomycetes are similar to fungus in the way they grow and spread, but its distinguishing elements are that the types of materials they are efficient at decomposing. The active nature in this microscopic bacteria and the sheer number present (about 10 million per 1 gram of soil), make them highly effective at breaking down materials like tree bark and other hard organic material.

Today, the use of composting to turn organic wastes into a valuable resource is expanding rapidly in many countries, as landfill space becomes scarce and expensive, and as people become more aware of the impact they have on the environment.

Composting Newspaper / From Toxic to Healthy

Not that long ago, newspapers were not good source for composting. The process has been stigmatized with a bad reputation because newspapers before were delivered, using ink that was highly toxic, which was very hazardous to nature. People of today’s generation carry that thought in their minds.

They do not know that technology has changed the process. Nowadays, the ink that is used for printing newspapers is a lot less hazardous and contains minimal toxicity. The ink contains carbon which is actually good for plants.

The carbon content greatly contributes to produce healthy compost. Carbon is in fact essential for all plants to grow healthy. An advantage of it is that it maintains the moisture of soil in our garden. If there is enough moisture on soil, the control of water and the transition of nutrients to the plants are evenly spread out according to what it needs.

Newspaper is also the best ingredient to mix with worms when decomposing as it serves as their beddings inside the composting bin.

Composting Newspaper / The Power of the Mix

The best mixture when composting with newspapers are grass and weeds. It will produce a very healthy result but you have to layer it properly because if not, the newspaper would end up as newspaper still, only it will be wet. Newspaper is not high maintenance under the context of composting because you can compost it anywhere but the texture is an essential factor that can affect the outcome.

Newspaper decomposes easily so by the time you expect it to have been decomposed already, you would want to see an ideal result but a thicker texture of newspaper takes longer to decompose. It will eventually be decomposed but it will take longer than you should expect with thinner texture of newspapers.

The ink that is being used in newspaper currently is perfectly safe for composting and one example of those is the soy ink. Here are some great reasons to use products made with soybean ink:

It is very popular today because it is not harmful to humans, animals, and plants.

It is made up of soybean oil and it is perfectly a biodegradable matter.

It is not petroleum-based.

It is safe and tested.

The plant still gets the carbon it needs while it contains zero harm.

Sources

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting-basics/composting-newspaper.htm
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/nwest/msg0414120632191.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5652246_make-compost-out-newspaper.html

Thank you for visiting the Composting Newspaper page.

For more information on composting follow these links:

Definition of Composting

How Does Composting Work

Anaerobic Composting

Composting Techniques

Composting Problems

Types of Composting