It's really another of those great unknowns. If you read the safety data sheets for laser toner cartridges, they make mention of some pretty serious toxicity risks. Handling the paper presumably isn't a significant risk, but concentrating it in compost so that it enters the food chain isn't something which seems advisable.
Personally, I'd stick it in the recycling bin and look for other stuff to compost instead. Cardboard food packaging generally uses vegetable inks, so tends to be a good option.
yes but the amount of toner per page is minute - toner cartridges have about 500g toner and that does about 20,000 pages ie 25mg per page.
Hmm, The safety data sheet lists the ingredients as
Styrene acrylate copolymer - 55-65% and the rest is iron oxide
Based on animal experiments, chronic exposure at
high doses of toner may cause
respiratory tract irritation and lung fibrosis. ie, you have to breathe it in or absorb it through your skin. However, toner is heated to make it melt into a permanent mark on the paper, so you wont get any in you from skin contact, and theres no dust to breathe when its been used.
So whereas unused toner has a slight risk, used toner is inert. Also, it decomposes to CO2 and CO.
So based on what the Safety Data Sheet says, its doesnt seem to pose much of a risk.
(sorry about the long URL)
I've removed the link BIB - I couldn't fix it.
Please don't post long links as it breaks the page and might make me want to bury you in your own compost ![wink ;)](https://chat.allotment-garden.org/Smileys/green/wink.gif)
Aunty