Hi, I'm confused as to whether I can compost paper that (a) I have printed on i.e. has printer ink on it and (b) paper that I've written on i.e. has pen ink on it.
I was also wondering, would it be OK to compost unused pen ink? I like to buy the multi-colour pens but I always use the green, black & blue with plenty of red left. Would it be OK to compost this red ink?
Yes for Paper, No for Ink
Thanks for your question Harry. I would say you are fine to compost paper with printer ink and with pen ink. Many inks today are now soy based rather than petroleum based and the small amounts on paper should be fine.
I'd leave the straight ink out of the compost though unless you are sure of the ink formula. In other words is it food or is it a petroleum based ink. I love that you are trying to compost everything but it's unlikely that the microbes in your compost would view the ink as a nice food source. They'd tolerate the ink on the paper because paper is a food source for them.