Most glossy paper is just fine. Personally I have enough cardboard and regular newspaper I leave the glossy stuff out.

Hope the others survive the citrus experience just fine.

Moni

I read somewhere that glossy and colour paper contain dioxins that are bad for your plants. I don't know what effect they have on worms though. It was recomended to only use black and white ink.

It used to be that inks contained bad things, but those were banned in some states ...oh, well over 20 years ago. Today it is quite safe to use the paper.

I have read that glossy and colored ink is bad and not to use in worm bins or compost pile.

The other site I use for answers and info too is www.mastercomposter.com, this is also a very helpful site.

Between this one and the mastercomposter you get all your questions answered.

Good Luck, I hope this is helpful
Tina

kdGW is correct. With the exception of metallic inks that are obvious (the shiny stuff on beer boxes for example), colored inks are soy based and perfectly safe these days. I've been working on copiers and color duplicators for over twenty years, and read the MSDS's.

Glossy paper is treated with a claylike substance and is safe as well. It's just harder to wet down, so I don't bother.

I've been in the printing industry for over 30 years and have lots of experience using, selling and writing about inks and washups for printing inks. So while soy oil may be a lot safer for the air and soil than petrochemical solvents, what about all the resins, waxes, stabilizers, preservatives and pigments (some with heavy metals) used in the manufacture of soy inks?

my take on it all is - no need to use the glossy stuff which is harder to deal w/, and generally speaking there's not too much color in a pile of newspaper, so color doesn't matter - and for the amount of ink on a sheet of paper, doesn't seem it could hurt much, certainly not worms, who thrive on newspaper! besides, there's bacteria that 'convert' near anything, including petro based inks [what bio-remediation is all about]

as for the citrus, the worms prefer it AFTER the proper bacteria degrade the 'zest' or citrus oils, when they'll happily gobble it down with the rest [yet another example of bio-remediation]

Bill