If its full of urine and waste, they will probably break down fairly quickly.

I use the paper from my birds' cages. I usually use it to make lasagna garden beds but I also use it to just lay very thick around the compost area, almost like a mulch. You can use a wheelbarrow and let the paper soak in some water to cover it for several days. Then when you dump it out it will be kinda shredded and dissolved. If you have two piles you can use it very thick to separate the two piles, keep it wet or it will blow away or lay a big rock on it. You could use it to make a path, lay it very thick with mulch on top. Just brainstorm I bet you can find a good use for it. you can even lay it under your garbage can for example if it is outside along the side of the house, like mine, with weeds. It keeps the weeds down. but to your original question, I would put the sheets in water and dissolve it some first.
Laurie

I throw in the whole Sunday newspaper intact. As a matter of fact, I throw in whole cardboard wine boxes with no problem, just keep it moist. It will be gone by the end of the season.

Thanks Laurie. I'm going to try soaking it though it grosses me out to think about what the water will be like afterwards (I think I'll use it to water the compost).

I probably wouldn't soak urine laden paper, because of the ick factor.

When you ask how long will they break down... I suggest you toss some in and then report back to us to let us know how long they break down.

And we should start a pool.

I say less than 30 days.

FWIW, in my telephone book experiment, I tossed two whole telephone books in my pile On Dec. 1, 2006. These were the big 3" thick books. I didn't soak them, I didn't shred them and my pile was covered in snow when I tossed them, as is, on top. One year later, they were still in the pile, buried deep, but in smaller chunks barely recognizable. 18 months later, they were completely gone.

So my assumption is that large sheets of paper already laden with urine, in the summer, are going to compost considerably faster than the phone books that I started in winter...

I figure if you have the time to walk to your compost pile, you have the time to shred some of it.
The smaller the pieces.....well, you know the difference.
Wetted down, it'll break down that much quicker.

Actually, cardboard boxes are not good for the compost as they contain a lot of glues not of benefit.

when we had one, we used the paper, but we shredded our paper first. makes it alot easier on the whole composting thing. ~Medo

Here, I can throw newspaper sheets into the compost pile and dig them out two years later and still read the articles. (We're winning!!!) But, they do break down pretty quickly when tilled into the soil.

The ones that were only composted a year, and I spread out in the flower beds, are still there, in the beds, 3 years later.

But then we live in a humidity/rainfall-challenged area.

Now? I fill boxes of newspapers, and take the whole freakin' box out and throw it under my trees, and then throw some fire wood, grass clippings, bark, brush trimmings etc on top to hold it down, and the 'mighty '52' earthworms deal with it.

Yes, I just dump the "icky" water on the compost pile becoz I don't officially water my pile otherwise. Or I wheel it over and water a shrub or something.
Laurie

Here's what I'm going to do:

I have two working compost piles right now. In one, I will first soak the newspaper and then put it in (I'll probably only soak it for 10 minutes or so, due to the ick factor). In the other I'll put in the sheets, torn up like I normally do, but still in big strips and not soaked in water. I'll report back in a month or two to tell you how it's going.

Putting in a whole phone book is pretty gutsy, I'm not ready for that one yet.

I tried the soaking and tearing into strips too. That still didn't work. Turning it into a paper maché slurry will work.

OTOH, magazines compost very quickly.

Dave, if your newspapers were soaked in urine, I would still bet that they would compost faster.

You're probably right, JPW. When I was being housebroken, DW would compost all that newspaper pretty easily.

> Actually, cardboard boxes are not good for the compost as they contain a lot of glues not of benefit.

This comment caught my eye. Corrugated, flutes to liner, is glued with just cornstarch/water. The manufacture's joint is held with white glue (elmers)which does not contain anything hazardous. Compost away.

IME, the glue seems to be the first thing that the bugs go after. They really like the stuff.