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is it safe to....
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Posted by wishful Qld Australia (My Page) on Tue, Feb 7, 06 at 6:19
| ... compost toilet rolls??
I am the recycle queen. After 5 kids and 12 years at kindy, I am so in the 'routine' of saving cereal boxes etc for kindy/preschool, that I am seriously wondering what I am going to do next year when I no longer have a child there (will they think I am very strange if I roll up every 2-3 week with a car load of 'stuff' for the craft table??ROFL!!)
Anyway.... that is not my problem (well, it is, but not the one I need help with...)
Kindy's can no longer take toilet rolls (sheesh! just cos they've been near POO!!). This has caused severe conumdrums at the making table (HOW do you get legs on a horse if you don't have toilet rolls? gear sticks on a car?? oh! the trials and tribulations!!)
Anyway, not to be outdone, I save them (mainly for sewing seeds into, so I can skip the thinning out stage, and go straight to the planting out stage....well, it works for me...)...but, because there are SO MANY of us (sigh!) and the kids insist on using the toilet - there are more toilet rolls than I can use. So the rest go into the compost (ok... a considerable number each week go into the compost!).
For some reason, I have suddenly had a horrible thought... is there something bad about the way toilet rolls are produced? Is it the worst grade of recycled paper, and full of aluminium or chemicals or something? Will they 'polute' my yummy compost that I put all around my vegies I feed my kids?
I know this sounds stupid - laugh all you want! - but does anyone know if toilet rolls are safe for compost? I'm having mightmares that my kids lettuce is now full of heavy metals or something..... |
Follow-Up Postings:
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ANNOUNCEMENT:
After several failed attempts at sterilizing small human beings, known to be dirty and grimey, all day care facilities, kindergartens and pre-schools are to close forthwith! But seriously, I'm sure toilet rolls are absoluetly fine. It's just cardboard, nothing special, no nasty ingredients. Why bother with nasty ingredients. They're just used to wrap paper around! |
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| Don't say that Ray - we have just submitted our application for the Daycare Centre to open in April! Actually it is worse - we are not allowed to have SWINGS because kids might fall out of them! But nothing about toilet rolls. Ridiculous - I mean the innards are covered by paper right up to the last bit and paper is generally considered sterile. I will check this though along with the other 5k of legislation I have to read........composting them will cook them pretty well and human poo in mocroscopic quantities can be found on mosrt supermarket trolley handles - what is the world coming to! Cosmic - the one who pulls her sleeves over her hands in Woolies! |
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| our C&K kindy spent a year spraying the toilet rolls with disenfectant - then were told they weren't allowed to use them cos of the germs. I'm sure there is logic there... but what about every other suface in the kindy... like all those 3yo's are so good at using soap and water!! It wasn't the germies I was worried about in the compost - it was that something bad could be in the cardboard left over from the manufacturing process. It's like I often worry about using newspaper becuase of the ink - even though every time I've researched it it is 'meant' to be OK! I'm a worry wort, shat can I say? |
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| all i can say with this duty of care stuff it is a big crock of poo (nicer word than what i wanted to use). where is it all going to end??????????? bloody stupid i reckon. but any way yes compost them by all means. and if they do have a bit of poo on them all the better for the worms hey lol? now what's a kid gonna do without a swing????? lets just wrap 'em all up in cotton wool hey. len |
Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
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| what a child hood without swings. I love swings, even now if there is a swing I'll get on it and swing as high as i can and I'm way past 21...how are kids going to learn their own limitations? what a stupid level of bureaucratic nonesense we live with. Helen |
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| It is absolute crap so far as I can see. We have to practically rebuild the house, put in a massive amount of fencing, replace all the glass, have none skid wet areas, soft floor coverings that are none allergenic etc etc. Fair enough. Now I am busy writing up the policies and protocols - what a blather of weasel words that is! - now a policy on what to do about abduction is one thing but to have a policy on what to do if a child spikes a temperature and you have to have written permission to give it a bit of Panadol ( my daughter is a triple certificated nurse as well as paramedic by the way) is stupid. My feeling is that Duty of Care means " We'll look after your kids" All the rest is waffle. Most 'topics' I'm just putting " Staff will abide by the appropriate legislation". I doubt that the powers that be even know what it is anyway. Have you tried to get any information off the government sites!!! The daftest thing of all is that before she can get her license she has to list the staff and their qualification - now why have staff if you are not allowed to practise until you get your licence. How are we supposed to pay staff that are not working! The nightmare continues with the overnight stayers. Because this is going to be the first 24 hour centre, even if only one child stays over, there has to be two night staff! Trying to simulate a home condition - not a bloody hospital - very few homes have two shift workers to look after two kids when they are asleep! I think they made that up as they went along. It's and attemp at BBB Bulls*** Baffles Brains. Their biggest issue at present is the carpark - we have to have 8 parks - no problem, but in case one of the families have a 4WD we have to WIDEN 70 metres of drive by 1/2 a metre so that a 4WD would be able to do a three point reverse! I've been fighting anal beaurocrats all my life! Looking forward to when I can take the kids out and get them DIRTY - get this - if we get chooks for the kids they have to wear gloves to collect the eggs!!!!!! |
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| if you want to compost the used bits of toilet rolls - that ends up perfectly safe after the worms have had their go and turned them into compost/vermiculite the inner rolls may take a little longer to compost because they are thicker than normal (non toilet) paper, but they will eventually break down in a good compost heap. |
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| A couple of years ago in the ACT a kid died from a tree branch falling on him at school. The response from ACT government was to cut down all the old shade trees that were deemed a hazard and replace them with shade sails. Just like the banning of peanut butter and bandaids, it seems when the possibility of being sued comes into the equation all common sense leaves the room. Damn shame
Karl |
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| No swings, gloves to gather eggs!!! The older I get, the more I look forward to leaving this mortal coil. We've become absurd. |
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I have just come back from a few days in Singapore and what a relief it was to see swings over bitumen areas, cheap crappy plastic toys with lots of "small parts which might present a choking hazard", frilly childrenwear which MIGHT be a fire hazard etc, etc...
I don't remember any scraped knee or elbow in particular (it happened too many times) but I do remember the hours spent dreaming away while swinging in the schoolyard as a child...
Rose-Marie |
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| Yep - it is a sad indictment of our society. My daughter already runs a small centre from home and after buying a great set of 6 swings ranging from little to large, she was told she couldn't use them; after she had used them for 2 years with no mishap. The kids loved 'graduating' to a bigger swing. Slippery-dips are equally 'unsafe' - so how do you teach littlies to let go and take a risk! They may only be 1.5 metres above the ground and have a 'soft Over landing'. Swings in fact stimulate left and right brain connective activity and I may take on the Ed Department who make these rulings in this state. (Once we get the licence!) Clinical Sanitised childhoods are banned in this family. Off to dig the sandpit today and plan the child-friendly garden. |
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| Have you noticed that kids who play in the dirt and sometimes forget to wash their hands are generally healthier than those who are kept too clean? |
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| They say picking their noses and eating it also improves the immune system! |
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| LOL that last comment is so funny dont tell my kids that though. Im always catching them doing that yuk. LOL |
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| My SIL used to wash the kids slippery slide down every day and she used to make the kids sit in the laundry tubs to wash their feet after playing outside - no wonder her kids were always sick and one has asthma. Mine have been allowed to play outside as much as they want, often getting soaked in the rain and splashing in the mud, used to eat the occasional dirt and they have all tried the cat & dog biscuits (actually I still catch my 4yr old eating the occasional cat biscuit - much to everyone elses disgust). My kids get no more than the usual couple of colds, rarely need to go to the doctor for illness (excluding the odd broken bone, etc) and are otherwise healthy. And yeah, no doubt they still do some excavating in the nose - yuk. I'd rather let my kids risk the odd broken bone than wrap them in cottonwool - how else can they experience the ups & downs of life and learn how far the body can go. We have a slippery-slide, monkeybars, swings, see-saw, trampoline & plenty of trees to climb at home but I'm always nervous when certain friends come over and would prefer they didn't get on them for fear of their parents suing me if anything happened. |
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| I blame John Howard! And Dr Phil and the Education Department that make me write bloody policy about Gender Equity for one year olds. At least I've got to I for Immunisation and now I'm off to the pub with my lovely neighbours |
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| If it wasn't so serious it would be funny, or maybe if it wasn't so funny it would be serious.My daughter runs a child care centre and is allowed to take the children wading or paddling but not swimming at the beach. Her strict instructions to the children are " if you step in a hole just keep wading, DONT SWIM! On a recent visit a three and a five year old were suprised to discover raspberries were growing on "sticks". She was even more suprised to discover that they "bleeded" after ten minutes in her pocket. |
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| Wonderful! Now it looks like I have to write another policy! Just when it seemed safe to get back into my own life. I have been commissioned ( told) to design the children's garden which is going to be a lovely project. I'm already starting setting cuttings. We also have a 5 acre block that will need planting with trees. I though since we will be licenced for 40 kids we might do a state funded greening project and get them to do the planting work! I'm sure very few of them will have had much gardening experience - we'd knock it off in a coupla days! |
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