From: songbird@anthive.com   
      
   Bob F wrote:   
   ...   
   > Years ago I contacted my local paper and asked. They assured me that   
   > their ink was safe. It couldn't hurt to ask.   
      
     based upon my experience all inks other than   
   carbon black and soy oil based have some   
   interesting things in them i'd rather avoid, but   
   at times i will still shred a small amount of   
   colored glossy inserts by accident and let the   
   worms eat those anyways.  i'm concerned though   
   that this might not be the best thing over the   
   really long term so i'm being more careful now.   
      
     in my experiments with different glossy papers   
   and various colored inks i saw the worms actually   
   sucking the ink off the paper as if they were   
   attracted to it (perhaps it registered as a salt   
   or flavoring that they liked i'm not sure what -   
   perhaps it was melon flavored (they really like   
   melon rinds)).   
      
     since some papers and cardboards can be coated   
   with plastic (or have a layer of plastic hidden   
   between layers of paper) it can be a real mess   
   if you happen to shred that and then use it in   
   your composting system (yes i have had this happen   
   - years later i'm still picking pieces of plastic   
   out of some gardens).   
      
      
     songbird   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)