this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
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[–] blubfisch@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

How does composting paper make more sense than recycling? From what I can tell we have pretty well established paper recycling mechanisms, at least here in Germany.

Edit: typo.

[–] F_State@midwest.social 8 points 2 days ago

In most countries, recycling paper only made financial sense if they shipped it to poor countries or used prison labor so it could be inexpensively sorted thru. Traditionally it was China, but they stopped accepting it. And letting microorganisms do what they do consumes less resources like electricity and less industrial chemicals.

[–] gallopingsnail@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I would guess that it's because recycling requires energy input, while compost doesn't require hardly any energy.

[–] blubfisch@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

I am pretty sure recycling does not require more energy than using fresh trees. You can even use the waste pulp to produce biogas.

[–] sip@programming.dev 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

recycled paper is lower quality, so you still have to add fresh paper pulp to it

[–] blubfisch@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 days ago

Sure. It's not a closed cycle. But if you need to cut down less trees, that is a win for me.