What To Do With Your Already-Read Forward
Here at The Forward, we get some interesting e-mails and letters. But last week we got our first question about repurposing old issues of the paper.
Margaret from Seattle wrote:
“I garden and would like to know whether the Forward is printed with soy-based ink. If so, I would be able to safely use the newsprint as mulch when I am finished reading the paper.”
What you don’t want to keep us, Margaret?
After checking with our printer, who is also an avid gardener, we learned that the Forward is printed eco-friendly, with soy-based ink, and we relayed the information to Margaret. She wrote us back with some tips for recycling the paper:
1) I use it to do what is called “lasagna layering”: unfolding the paper, wetting it and using it as one of the several layers placed on top of soil. The layers include wet corrugated cardboard, grass and plant clippings, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, leaves, straw, compost. I will repeat layers until I have built a “lasagna” that may be 12-18 inches in depth.
2) I will wet, tear and use newsprint as the carbon component to mix with vegetable scraps and plant cuttings, the nitrogen component, in my compost pile.
3) I may use leaves/straw along with wet, torn newspaper to mulch soil around plants. Happy composting!
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