[Anton]

Dear Gardeners,

One of my fellow allotment gardners is growing seeds in cardboard tubes from empty toilet rolls. I found an article about making newspaper pots but all the newspapers we have in our house have parts with coloured ink on them. I understand black ink is soya-based but what about coloured ink? Any ideas anyone?

Anton

[flowerlady]

Not a clue, but would have thought that the small amount that one might use would not be too harmful,
 :?
anyway try this ...

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2003/March/inkchemistry.asp

[Anton]

In answer to my own question I found this in the Guardian online (I wonder if the following applies to newspapers in general as my wife subscribes to "Le Monde Diplomatique" and I to the "Times Literary Supplement" - pretentious, moi!!!)

Anton

"The big worry I have about newspaper is what is contained in the paper and ink. Anyone at the Guardian know what is contained in newsprint ink?


Posted by fmgazette on April 9, 2007 9:39 PM.
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I asked Jenny Hanock in our production department about this and here's what she says, "The ink we use is primarily mineral based with approx 15% Soya added. The mineral base is 'clean' oil in that it does not contain any compounds that are harmful. The percentage of Soya is governed by how much can be added without the ink becoming unstable, by that I mean its ability to reject water, a key part of the printing process. Some manufacturers claim to produce 100% Soya based ink, however this is not suitable for newspaper printing using the lithographic process.

The newsprints we use do not pose any danger or harm to people or the environment. Most of the process chemicals used are removed or diluted during the paper making process; therefore there are no significant amounts in the final product. After use, the products can be recycled as raw material for new paper products or they can be composted safely."

Hope this eases your concerns. Seems you are safe to use your old Guardians and Observers for making paper pots, compost, mulch and the like.

Posted by IanTucker on April 11, 2007 2:18 PM.
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[666]

I found the idea of these pots interesting so I looked them up.  It also explains the ink thing more simply.  I'm going to have a go at make some!

http://www.ehow.com/how_1745_create-seed-starting.html

[Aidy]

I have over the years kept a beady eye on the ink bit, I believe from a few science based sites that all ink will contain a certain amount of heavy metals and cannot be used without them, this includes soya based inks although the amount is very low and generaly wont harm us or mother nature. the only problem with toilet rolls is they tend to go mouldy after a while and this may affect the seed/seedling.

[shaun]

near me there is a large paper recycling factory,now when they have done there stuff with the paper theres a lot of waste (ink) it looks like readybrek but is like a grey/blue colour, now this goes straight onto the farmers fields and they pay the farmer for doing this  :shock:

[Aidy]

Often wonder about those Blue spuds Thompson and Morgan sell  :?

[shaun]

its realy good stuff for blueberries  :lol:

[ziggywigs]

Often wonder about those Blue spuds Thompson and Morgan sell  :?

Do you mean Edzell Blue?  I grew these one year nice tasting spud but i'm not keen on the skin colour...just a personal thing.   The spud is white though.

[donald.cape]

Try this link for newspaper pots, you can store them flat 'til you need them. Don't give up once you get the hang of it you will find it easy.

http://www.geocities.com/newspaperpots/

How do you post hyperlinks ?

[Anton]

That's very good, Donald, but I'm useless at origami, I'll try to get my son or daughter to have a go. Actually I'm using the straightforward wrap around a jam jar method. It wasn't making them that bothered me it was worrying if I was wreaking havoc upon the environment (my allotment that is, a tiny part of the environment) with all this ink and coloured ink in particular. The person in the link you showed doesn't seem to worry much about using coloured ink. Maybe there's another, equally, or nearly equally, cheap source of (non-environmentally-hostile) paper for making these pots.

All suggestions greatly received.

Anton

[flowerlady]

Try this link for newspaper pots, you can store them flat 'til you need them. Don't give up once you get the hang of it you will find it easy.

http://www.geocities.com/newspaperpots/   ...

I gave done those ones too .... boy you should have seen the colour of my hands after ... would suggest you use latex gloves !!! :roll:  

[brucesgirl]

Oh gawd - posted a question about these on another topic

[flowerlady]

Thought you guys might like to read this ... received it this morning ...

Further to your recent enquiry concerning the make up of the printing ink we use to produce our newspapers, I have finally received a response from our ink manufacturer as follows:

With regards to your readers request for information concerning the composition of inks and in particular. Is there an element of Soya oil in them ?

The answer is yes ,we combine both mineral and a range of vegetable oils including Soya in our  inks supplied to The Telegraph Media Group, the proportions vary depending on the particular formulation and colour type (Cyan Magenta Yellow), we endeavour where possible to maximize the % of vegetable oils used ,however their are limitations within the printing process that restricts us from converting over to 100% vegetable oil.
Coupled with the oils used we add a varnish and a resin along with the relevant pigment to each ink.

The materials are inert and are safe to be used for paper pots etc.

Thank you for your enquiry and I hope this information has answered your question satisfactorily and sorry it has taken so long to reply.

Kind regards,


Paul Brady
Printing Director
telegraphmediagroup
111 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 0DT
Direct line: 020 7931 2286

[noshed]

The printing unions spent a long time campaigning against toxic ingredients in printing ink.
I am quite happy about using old newspapers on my plot (mainly in the compost heap).