Navigation Menu+

Can I Compost Magazines?

(From the Household waste category | 3 comments - join the conversation)

magazinesMagazines shouldn’t be composted – it’s better to recycle them instead.

Glossy paper, such as that used in magazines or take-away menus, is often coated in plastic or otherwise uses synthetic materials to achieve shinyness.

The inks used on brightly coloured magazines can sometimes be toxic too.

(Newspaper-like magazines or zines – black and white print on low quality paper – can be composted as if they are newspapers though.)

If you’d prefer to reuse them or can’t recycle them in your area, they can be used as the raw material in various crafts.

Also don’t forget to reduce if you can – some magazines let you switch to the greener (and often cheaper) option of reading them online or through phones/e-readers. Or if they’re popular, your local library might hold them. Finally, if you must buy them, pass them on to others before recycling them.


Share this post

facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinteresttumblrmail

3 Comments

  1. That is stupid people just stop putting plastic on the paper!!!!

    • There is absolutely no need to put plastic in this whatsoever. Simply for the shine!? Why! 50% of crap doesn’t need plastic in at all. I agree with Linlin. Preach Linlin!

    • Glossy magazines are glossy due to the china clay treatment of the paper surface, not plastic. Ink jet printed stuff does however include synthetic polymers in the ink as binders, that would be mostly home and office printed material rather than mass produced colour print, which is still offset litho’.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>