Thanks for a great over-view.

Go insight, thanks.
Why don't the newspaper just go on line & stop making paper products. They are out dated, with the web & cable T.V.
Like this site & http://kitchengardeners.org instead of buying a book or DVD.

jolj- Some of us just have to have the feel of a newspaper in our hands!
I am getting one of those e-book thingys for xmas, but we shall see if it can replace the book in the hand!
It should help, as I can adjust the font and maybe not have to wear my nasty glasses! And maybe I'll save a tree or 3! NT

lol not so fanatical are you(:
There is no paper pickup in rural areas and I'm not wasting gas driving paper to town although we don't get daily paper but a lot of cardboard which the garbage company charges to leave a dumpster for

My pile currently has three deer carcasses in it and the cats and dogs do as they please I pee on it every time I walk by too would probably do humanure if I didn't have functioning septic system

Good post though I think even beginners get hammered to hard on what can not be composted and get scared to advance

I'm unconvinced that electronic reader devices have a "better" ecological impact than books, especially with the newer ability to print on-demand.

Paper's at least renewable.

Electronics and batteries?

New paper does need some old paper to make that new paper, but whether recycling paper in a way that puts our old paper back into that waste stream depends on whether the real cost is worthwhile. If trucking your used paper someplace to recycle it costs you much more then the paper is worth, using it in your garden is the more ecologically sane way to recycle that paper.
If you look closely at some paper material that is labeled as using recyled paper you may notice that the recycled content is 10 perceent which is about what is needed in the paper mill to make new paper and most of that comes from in plant recycled fiber, not from outside sources.
The cost of moving that paper from where you are to where it can be recycled usually is much greater that the used paper is worth, although one use of old paper fiber is to make cellulose insulation to be sprayed into homes. Unfortunately that industry depends on free, or at least very low cost, paper to exist today.

NancyJane ... I'm with you. And not just because my name is NancyJean!
Seriously, don't touch my books, magazines or newspapers. Curling up with a "good computer" just doesn't do it for me.

I should qualify my advice:

1. I live in the city so I have to pay a little more attention to odors than you lucky rural folks do. Also, due to my small lot I have to be more mindful of sanitation.

2. The dense population in the city allows for frequent and economical paper recycling service. Also, due to the dense population I have to be careful that my compost pile doesn't just look like a pile of garbage I dumped on the lawn. Again, you will have to adjust your composting strategy based on your local circumstances.

Some areas such as mine don't even actually recycle the paper. They burn it in a waste to energy plant to make electricity.

As nice as that is it doesnt much matter to me since I make my own power from PV panels. I mulch the garden with my paper.

I was going to start a new thread to ask my question, but it looks like this is the place to ask (forgive me if I'm hijacking): Can I compost leaves of diseased plants? moldy food? "poisonous" plants like oleander? How do you know what kinds of things break down into harmless nothingness in the compost bin, and what needs to be left out?

Whether to compost diseased plant tissue is difficult because it depends on a number of factors such as which disease and how you compost, as well as where that compost will be used later.
Leaves from Maples with Black Tar Spot can be composted since most all of the Maple leaves will have that while leaves from plants with Anthracnose probably should not be. Many of us have composted leaves from the Walnut family and the Castor Bean with no problems. All plant waste is digested in nature with not too much of a problem, and diseases appear to be kept confined with much less control needed than in our gardens.

Let me throw out a different perspective on paper recycling. I find it harder to get browns than greens. If I didn't have shredded paper, I'd have to go buy browns. Peat most is easiest to get(and priciest) at ~$3/ft^3. Wood chips are ~$1/ft^3, and so on. So the cost of recycling paper is the cost of a replacement brown. It's likely that is higher than savings resulting from handing paper over to the recycling service.
Right now, I have about a cubic yard in storage, and expect to go through it quickly when I make my first few piles in the spring.

I call that a "big picture" line of thinking Josko. There are often extenuating circumstances that ought to be taken into account when considering different approaches to issues.

Lloyd

I'm being a bit pedantic, but maybe something like "a few words of caution about what to compost [if you're just starting out]", or something, would be helpful.
I make good, healthy compost on my small suburban property using everything on the 'don't use' list except pet faeces.
While it's a hassle pulling out strings of old elastic when I turn the pile, cutting bits off old clothes would interfere with my "rough enough's good enough" policy!
I compost any carbon-based lifeforms I can lay my hands on, without spreading disease or stinking up the neighbourhood!
I consider myself exempt from my unsolicited addition to the OPs post, so bear that in mind. I'm also in New Zealand and things might be different here.

I also find it better to throw old clothes into the pile & pick out oddities when I use the compost;
if I had to take off buttons, zippers, snaps, tags, elastic, etc, I'd likely get fed up & throw the whole thing away.

Seems like it was this forum where someone posted a picture of a pair of cotton/spandex pants a year after they'd been put into the pile & the cotton fabric had broken down;
what remained looked like a elastic-y, webby pair of pants!

I put my sensitive information through the shredder and then I compost it, such as any papers with my name/identifiers on them.

Otherwise, I also support recycling your paper instead.