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  • From: Dennis Argall <dennisargall@bigpond.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] composting sheetrock/gypsum wallboard?
  • Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 00:00:23 +1100

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





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