permaculture

[Dennis Argall <dennisargall@bigpond.com>]

Hi Meg

I have done this recently!

The materials safety data sheet for the material I used, in Australia,  
is here:
http://www2.csr.com.au/msds/csrprod.nsf/0/ 
f7a55df7d16192534a256996001a61d0?OpenDocument

-- you should be able to google for your local product by name.

That page says the product is: "A rigid sheet of plasterboard or  
cornice consisting of a gypsum core encased in a paper plasterboard  
liner."

Well that's a gypsum wallboard in Australia, don't know if it covers  
all classes of American sheetrock, which I trust do NOT contain  
asbestos.

I put bits into the (9hp, light industrial) shredder after it had been  
out in the weather some weeks. Though the sheets were damp and fragile,  
the consequences were still pretty dusty, for person and engine. I  
mixed it with prunings to reduce dust, but it would perhaps have been  
just as smart (indeed perhaps smarter) to lie it on the ground as sheet  
mulch - IF your objective is to add something that will break up clay -  
which is my need . Gypsum is a good additive for clay acid soils. After  
a couple of hours of rain on sheets of this laid on a proposed garden,  
you could have a party for friends with stiletto heels and the whole  
job could be done in short order and with fun, perhaps planting  
seedlings into the stiletto holes after a few drinks have been spilled.  
This could be a place to send the overflow crowd from the warming party  
for your remodelled basement perhaps.

If you had a new dam that won't settle, is full of clay particulate,  
you could try skimming offcuts.

You could arrange interestingly shaped fragments in a wheat field in  
geometrical patterns, then ring a relevant media organisation with  
photos and stories and perhaps be paid enough to remodel the  
basement... oh damn, done that

:-)

must be Saturday night

cheers

Dennis


On 12/03/2005, at 11:16 PM, Meg Mullett wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> We've just finished remodeling our basement, and we've got lots of
> scraps of new gypsum wallboard/sheetrock left that need to be
> disposed of. I see that many composting centers accept clean
> sheetrock, so I assume it is compostable. I guess I'm wondering how
> safe it really is. Does anybody know what all is in it, and how its
> made?
>
> Is it safe enough to compost with my pile that gets spread onto the
> veggie garden?
>
> Or would it be better to compost it with another pile that is used
> only on ornamentals?
>
> Also, has anybody done this before? Should I try to run it through
> the chipper shredder? Or just break it into pieces?  Any idea of what
> ratio of wallboard to other materials to use?
>
> Or would you say its really better to throw it away?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Meg in KS