Almost all garbage bags are made of polyethylene, which is thought to be the safest plastic. However, unless it is specifically "food grade" plastic, the dyes and other chemicals used in the processing of the plastic will leach into the soil. Is it enough to really matter? I doubt it. But if you want to be on the safe side, use "food grade" garbage bags, which you can get from restaurant/kitchen supplies. They aren't expensive, but they're usually clear and somewhat flimsy. Ziploc bags meant for food storage are also obviously food grade, and made from polyethylene. Compostable garbage bags should also be safe, but would they last a growing season? I don't know.

I know this is a very old thread, which I found while Googling about composting cardboard. But, it seems that no one has actually addressed the initial question, so I'll take a stab. What I have read is that corrugated cardboard is either made with no adhesive (the cellulose fibers stick to themselves) or with a biodegradable cornstarch glue. That's the cardboard itself - not any glossy labels or tape on it, or thick glues on the surface of the cardboard, of course. Some corrugated cardboard does have a thick plastic-y glue applied to the surface to hold it together into a box shape. I peel off labels and tape, remove any visible glue, and then shred or cut the cardboard into smaller pieces, and add it to my pile. It begins to break down almost immediately when enough moisture is present. I suspect that even the thick glues would not really be HARMFUL in compost - but I don't know if they would break down easily. I do what I can easily do to remove anything that isn't actually cardboard. If I were composting on a larger scale, I'm not sure I'd even remove stuff stuck on the cardboard. By way of an anecdote... I used to eat cardboard when I was little, with no ill effects. (Well, most would agree there were no ill effects. ;-))

Hi Tammi, I had made myself a note to check back with you on the 20th.; but here you are. I am down on the other side of Wooster. I appreciate any help. The ideal size for the card boxes would be 9" long by 6" wide, by at least 2" deep. That means we would have to have a piece of card stock bigger than 8 1/2" X 11" to start with. Does the score-it board even accommodate that big of a sheet of paper? The one I looked at didn't appear to, but then I don't know anything about using one. Still have my heart set on those "glossy candy boxes" at that one site. I even called the other day and asked if I could buy less than 100. He flat out said, "No, 100 only". I pleaded a little. "No, orders of 100 only". Shoot. I don't even have 100 friends to send boxes of cards to!

Thanks all, I thought if they provided something useful to the soil/plants, like iron, after broken down, it might make sense to leave them. But as kimmq mentioned, they wouldn't provide the right kind of stuff anyway. I think they were steel, about 2", but not sure. And now that I think about iron too, cast iron type tub comes to mind... I guess I need to refresh my memory on chemistry a bit - probably no iron in those staples, but that's just an un-educated guess. So I had only put the piles of compost in the center, and was able to go around and easily pull out the staples. Covered in compost and mulch now, so it's all good, and I have a clearer mind that there won't be rusty staples out there for me, my pooch, or others to step on in the future because of me. But I do feel like a dufus... I had this big accumulation of cardboard boxes in my garage that just kept growing larger. Hated to put them in the recycling bin because I might need them to ship something in sometime. And I was initially buying newspaper, then postal shipping paper, then Home Depot rolls of construction paper(?) to put down before the compost and mulch. Then the light bulb went on, and it must be one of those low level solar lights in the yard that are too dim, and last too short a time :-)... Hmmm, why don't I use those boxes instead? For what I was spending on newspaper and construction paper and shipping paper, I can use the boxes instead, and if I need a box sometime, I've saved enough to splurge and buy one :-)