by wendrew8 on Tue, May 18, 10 at 13:26

I use paper toweling. Can I compost this? And how about kleenex??

Yes. And yes.

IMHO No

Not without knowing if you do hot composting.

I cold compost ... and imagine that with 6 children to fill your 'spare' time, you don't do a lot of turning either [unless the kids do it] I use paper towels, paper plates, kleenex, tp & towel rolls, newspaper, cardboard. With most of these items, I soak in a bucket of water derived from rinsing & steaming veggies,pre-dishwasher plate rinsing, and leftover/spoiled food. This sits in part of the yard my dogs can't reach, 'till pretty rank ... then is poured over the top of the comp-pile. It is then covered with yard trimmings so I don't have to look at the unpleasant gunk. In just a few months it is totally unrecognizable when I sift the comp. We have a warm, arid climate zone, so that may be the reason why this method works for me. But no matter what your zone is, I would think that most any paper will work...just keep moist to aid composting and keep it from blowing around and being an eyesore.

In recent years, I have started composting many paper products. The compost bucket in the kitchen ends up being about 50% paper/50% food scraps. This includes paper towels, napkins, kleenex, Q-tips, paper plates, paper coffee cups, TP rolls, etc. I use brown paper shopping bags to soak up oil from fried foods, and then in to bucket. These all composts fine.

I do cold composting and don't bother soaking paper because we get pretty regular rainfall here. The paper can be a little untidy if it gets scattered around, but it decomposes eventually (plus my lot is over an acre, it's not in the neighbors' faces).

I compost all paper towels and kleenex that I can. Husband keeps throwing them into the trash and half the time I fish them back out to put into the bucket. I don't bother to wet them, between the rains and the moisture from the coffee grounds from my pot, or just the veggie/fruit waste is enough to keep it nicely wet.
Husband grosses out on the kleenex idea but it is all organic. I buy q-tips that have cardboard stems not the plastic ones for a few reasons. First I can compost them, also they seem to be less costly.
Sandy

I don't really have a problem with kleenex although I don't do it at my house. The gunk from the back of the fridge that goes in there is way worse than my own mucus. If you're married you're presumably swapping fluids on a regular basis anyway. (ooh, awkward, sorry :-)

Depends on how long you've been married.

Given that you're skipping gory details, I assume we're talking about small bottoms and the materials involved - i.e. using paper towels to clean small people's bottoms.

The term you need is "humanure," and there are various thoughts on it. It's way too hard core for me, and we washed our own cloth diapers - i.e. I have a pretty high level of comfort for the products of small people's bottoms.

The general rule of thumb about manure is that it's OK to compost the manure of vegetarian animals (cows, horses, sheep, goats, and pets like hamsters and rabbits) but NOT the manure of carniverous or omniverous animals (pigs, dogs, cats). It's about diseases as much as it's about smell. Human manure has, of course, a much higher risk of carrying disease that might cause problems for humans. Baby or toddler manure might be less likely, but you'd have to talk to an expert on humanure composting.

Urine is a different matter, since it is sterile when it comes out of the human body. Some people advocate urinating on compost piles occasionally, because human urine contains a lot of nitrgogen. Personally, that is also - at this point at least - too hard core for me. But I can see myself throwing in paper towels with baby urine, no problem. Don't ask me why - I dunno. I only had two kids, but that still amounts to lots of wet diapers?

Ohh. I wasn't thinking about those "gory" details. I guess I was thinking more about wiping small faces and cleaning up messes made by small fingers.

I tend to agree with candogal. I'm not into humanure composting at home. Let the big county waste facilities work that one out. They have the equipment and the resources to test the compost to make sure it is safe for use in gardens.

Tissues used for wiping smallish noses or paper towels used to wipe up the spilled Cheerio milk would be okay.

Personal preference only.

Well, my details weren't really all that gory, I guess. I wasn't speaking of paper towel or kleenex with fecal material but sometimes wet as I am potty training and we have alot of hardwood floors that I get to "dry up"! Anyway, we have lots of mucus here too with allergies, etc. and I would love to put the kleenex in. My pile contains horse manure so I am assuming that it gets hot enough. Thanks for all the advice!

You thought you could gross out the compost forum with a few boogers lol (;
I would definatly be composting them

Posted by momstar (My Page) on Thu, May 20, 10 at 12:01

"Depends on how long you've been married. "

Chuckle, chuckle.

g'day,

they all come under the title of rottables in our home so they all end up in the garden one way or the other.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Personally, I would not worry about kleenexes etc for a couple reasons. For one, any pathogens that might survive long enough through the composting then the garden soil, picked up by a vegetable and carried inside to the kitchen.... well, they are YOUR pathogens or at least one you have been exposed to, probably repeatedly in the house.

The world is not sterile. That being said, I would not feed something from that garden to somebody who just had a bone marrow transplant... but guess what? They are not supposed to eat uncooked veggies anyway from any source. I personally trust my own garden alot more than wherever the produce in the grocery store might come from.

I also have one compost pile where I throw some VERY questionable items- Squirrels that will no longer destroy my yard and garden, a small amount of dog poop from my pomeranian who decides to pee outside and then goes inside to crap on the carpet, and contents of my vaccuum cleaner that contains whatever....

Mom .....Using newspapers to absorb pee accidents on hardwood [even carpet] is better and CHEAPER than paper towels. As mother of 4 and grandmother of 4, I learned long ago to 'recycle' newspapers in various family accidents. [our dishwasher went crazy and flooded the kitchen ... a pile of newspapers being saved for kid's recycling project saved the day!]