The glue used to bin any paperback book, including phone books, is plastic, similar to hot glue.

In my younger daze, I tried phone book (yellow pages) glue once. I didn't get any results other than an information overload headache.

What about the color inks EQEQ? Have they been safety-ized like newsprint inks?

Chuckiebtoo

With exactly zero facts to back me up I am 100% certain that if most all newspapers in America use safe inks that phone books do too.

I am glad to know the facts now about phone book spine glue being plastic. So it was worth it to rip the pages free of it. But now I'm leaning towards oyster mushrooming the plastic free pages first. The bonus being it should be even more tasty for the worms.

Hey maybe we should myceliumize all the worm bedding first? I bet the worms would like Tasty Bedding?

I am with you all the way on pre-conditioning the paper before it go's in the bin. Where I draw the line is tearing the pages out. "Arthur Ride Us" wouldn't let me rip many at once. A band saw might remove the spine if one was in a hurry.
Where have you been recently equin ox, hanging out in garden party?

" A band saw might remove the spine if one was in a hurry."

Or had many large phone books to disassemble. I use a bandsaw on all magazines with "newsprint" pages that have glued bindings.

"You are what you eat."

Paul