Can Compost Glossy Paper Survival Gardening

What if you could cut your household waste in half… before you even recycled a single can?

According to a 2013 report from the EPA, 14.6 percent of America's trash was food wastes, another 13.5 percent was yard trimmings, 6.2 percent was wood and 27 percent was composed of paper and cardboard. The remaining 38.7 percent was mostly comprised of glass, plastic, metals, and other non-biodegradable materials.

When most people think about composting, they think about pitching their coffee grounds and banana peels into a bin… yet if you really took advantage of Nature's system, you can compost a LOT more than that!

Dairy, bones, bread, ramen noodles… those sorts of things hit the trashcan, rather than the compost bin, thanks to the restrictive rules we're used to hearing from most authorities. Out of all your food scraps, you're probably only returning half to the soil. So… perhaps 7 percent of your waste?

Ridiculous! We can do a lot better than that! We can reduce waste by 50 percent!

All food wastes can be composted. In fact, my recent book Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting covers multiple methods for disposing of everything from fish guts to big logs—no trash service required! The Native Americans did it. Austrians have done it. The Chinese have done it. Why can't we?

What if we were to compost all of our food scraps… all of our yard trimmings… all the wood… and all the paper?

I know, you're going to tell me that stuff won't work in a bin. "What about glossy magazines with perfume samples or the little plastic envelope windows in the speeding ticket reminders I keep getting?"

Okay, you're right. We may not be able to kill all the potentially biodegradable waste… but I'll lay odds we can compost at least 50% of the waste that would normally hit the curb…

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12 comments

Annie September 4, 2015 - 3:53 pm

When I grew up (60's-70's) my family composted everything. We gardened, an had animals. We burned or composted the paper an cardboard, an recycled most glass to food an seed storage… When I got out into the world an discovered that even well-to-do people just threw their food left-overs an such in the trash an it STANK to high heavens… An oh-my… There was so much of it! Its changed my view of wealth…

David The Good September 5, 2015 - 10:04 pm

Great story, Annie.

My children are always amazed when we visit friends who don't compost. "Why not???"

Curtiss September 4, 2015 - 7:02 pm

I too grew up hauling the burnable task out to the burn pile, and the scraps out to the compost pile. It the country we didn't have trash pickup like we have today. About three years ago i started a food forest, with David's divine guidance, and have been composting all my food waste, and since he wrote "Composting Everything" I have been composting a lot more. It is amazing what composting does to your garden, and food forest!

David The Good September 5, 2015 - 10:05 pm

"David's divine guidance"

I'd like to think I'm just following in the big footsteps of the Divine Creator who set these systems up. 🙂

Thanks a bunch, Curtiss.

rycamor September 5, 2015 - 4:42 pm

One thing I would like to see is an in-depth analysis on the dangers of toxins in various types of biodegradable garbage:

* Newspapers
* Toilet paper (I've read some very bad things about what goes into standard toilet paper)
* Paper towels (I'm guessing the sparkling white ones are probably the worst)
* Standard printer paper with laser or inkjet printing on it.
* leftover fluff from laundry/dryer
* old paperback books, non-glossy magazines

In my ideal future world, we could compost all the biodegradable stuff, and process the rest of the plastic and plastic-infused glossy paper in some sort of recycler that can turn it into raw material for our 3D printers.

BTW, it would also be nice to research the effect of burning on the biodegradable stuff that's higher on the toxin count–whether that helps or not.

David The Good September 5, 2015 - 10:06 pm

DON'T MAKE IT SO HARD!!!

Actually, I've had the same thoughts myself. It's so very difficult to balance all the potential issues, isn't it? The whole stinking world is a mess.

David The Good September 5, 2015 - 10:07 pm

I mean, it really wouldn't take much trouble to design it better; it's just not going to happen via the big government/big corporate system we have now.

Just the switch from paper packaging and glass bottles to plastic bottles and packaging has been devastating in terms of trash creation.

George September 8, 2015 - 4:22 am

Thanks David. I'm planning to begin composting . But I live in town and neighbors are pretty close. Is there much need to concern myself with the smell created by a compost site if my neighbors are not more than 50 to 100 feet away?

David The Good September 8, 2015 - 9:16 am

Good for you!

I wouldn't worry about it being a problem, so long as you have some "brown" material to cover the pile with. I throw on a shovel-full of dirt now and again when I add stinky stuff, plus leaves or shredded paper. I used to also recommend straw; however, a lot of straw is now contaminated with long-term herbicides that can wreck a garden.

Tim September 12, 2015 - 12:59 pm

I can support what you've written here 100%. Last year my family and I moved from a large city to a more rural type setting. We now live in what can best be described as a farming community. Rather than paying to have our garbage picked up, there are drop off places all over the city, so we drop off our garbage on the way to work and what not. So naturally, I became interested in ways to reduce our garbage volume. I also started gardening for the first time in my life and as such, I started composting all food waste…..Also, we recycle all plastic and paper…… It is almost mind-boggling how little garbage is left when you compost your food waste and recycle your plastic and paper. You say it reduces it by at least 50%. For my family, it has reduced it even beyond that. I'm glad I finally learned. This is a good tip to be passing out, so thank you for that.

David The Good September 12, 2015 - 2:08 pm

Tim – I love to hear stories like this. Thank you – and, you're welcome.

Erin September 13, 2015 - 5:43 pm

This morning my 6 and 4yr old boys were playing super hero dress up. My 4yr old dressed up with various super hero paraphernalia and then declared his super hero name to be "CompostMan!" And his super hero power was turning everything into compost. He ran around the house point at things and then shouting "Composted!"
Did my mother's heart proud and we had a good laugh. The kids have fun pitching their banana peels and food scraps into a Rubbermaid bucket with clip on lid that I then take outside and dump into my compost bin. I don't worry too much about smell because we have the wonderful black soldier fly larvae that make their home in my compost bin and quickly convert any food thing into a liquid vermicompost.
I also have a small Rubbermaid vermicomposting bin inside full of red wriggler earth worms. They produce the highest quality compost I've ever seen, but with much more care on my part to feed them slowly so as not to overload the system. I make a killer vermicompost tea using the water from my goldfish tank as a base. I usually put the homemade burlap filter cartridges from the tank into the worm bin which they go nuts for.