Question
QUESTION: I am a teacher and we have a lot of shredded paper in our school. I am part of a community garden (organic) and thought of using the shredded paper between the raised beds to prevent weeds. We use laser printers, black ink. What do you recommend.

ANSWER: Dear Donna:

Congratulations on your community garden!  Using shredded paper as a mulch is a great idea, however determining what type of ink used on the paper should be considered.  Many newspapers today use soy based inks and are considered harmless to the soil or vegetables.  Many major papers now use a soy-based ink. In which case, shredded newspaper is perfectly good as gardening mulch. In fact, a great way to deal with weeds is to lay down newspaper (not shredded) spread out and then put a little mulch on top of it. The paper will choke out the weeks and eventual decompose into the ground.  Avoid using pages with color such as full color advertisements or the comics.  These colors could potentially have heavy metals or harmful chemicals.

In addition, using full sheeted newspaper is easier to manage over shredded paper.  In a word, windy conditions when applying shredded paper can create potential chaos!!  Suggest after laying down either, water spray the paper moderately to add some wind control prevention.

Regards,

Mack Jean
AllExperts
Master Gardener
Tennessee

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Let's rephrase the question. Is it okay to use office paper with laser black ink on it, that has been shredded in the community garden? What do you think?

Answer
Re: Follow-up

Let's be hypothetical: The black ink on the paper is possibly made of unknown chemicals that could be toxic or harmless soy.  If one can accept that fact and further consider that comparing the ratio volume of ink on the paper versus the volume of paper itself; one would conclude that the risk of  high toxicity (if any) in the ink would be a minimal risk assessment that plant life would not be adversely affected on the basis of ink wash off into the soil.  

I think I would personally be willing to take the risk of using the paper on the basis of the aforementioned.

Mack Jean
AllExperts
Master Gardener
Tennessee