YESTERDAY'S NEWS FINDS LIFE IN MULCH, BEDDING

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Yesterday's news is today's recycled product.

Recycled newspapers are being used as bedding for farm animals and as a mulch to help grow grasses and alfalfa on reclaimed strip mine areas to provide wildlife habitat.

Recycling firms in several states, including Illinois, are producing both the mulch and the bedding with good success.

Shredded newsprint provides farmers with bedding which has high absorbency, fast decomposition, easy handling, reduction in bacteria and absence of weed seeds, says Barry Steevens, state extension dairy specialist with the University of Missouri-Columbia. "It's safe, cheap and works well," he said.

The recycled newspapers, which have been turned into a slushy mulch, have also worked well for boosting plant growth at a mined land reclamation project in Southern Illinois.

"A mix of water, newsprint, seeds, fertilizer and a dash of food coloring turned a three-acre strip mine site into a colorful area this fall," said Jack R. Nawrot, a specialist in mined land reclamation at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. "You can get the hydro-mulch in any color. In our case, we selected green."

"The food dye provided an interesting touch," he said

"We sprayed the mix on the site in early October," said Nawrot. "Initial results of an experiment show that the seeds mixed with newspapers germinated 10 to 12 days faster than three other mulches."

Four mulches newspaper mulch, wood-chip mulch, magazine mulch and the traditional straw mulch were sprayed over a 26-acre experimental site at the Orient Number One mine strip in Franklin County.

Nawrot is monitoring how quickly grass and alfalfa seedlings grow, soil erosion rates, and the health of the mature plants. The $18,000 study was commissioned by the state of Illinois, and is expected to be completed by next June.

The state commissioned the study and demonstration plots to show area landscaping contractors that newspaper mulch is a viable recycled product, said Nawrot.

"The newspaper mulch, which was combined in a 3,500-gallon tank truck along with water, seed, fertilizer and the color dye for application for spraying, germinated 10 to 12 days faster than other mulches in the area, despite some fairly dry weather," said Nawrot. "The newspaper mulch, applied with water, had an advantage during the dry period."

Following a month's dry period, the area experienced continuous rains, which totaled about 3.1 inches, noted Nawrot.

"With the added moisture, the wood-chip mulch treatments did catch up," he said, "but the advance growth experienced with the newspaper mulch gives the grasses an edge over possible freezes or downpours.

"The magazine mulch materials did poorly," said Nawrot. "The constituents of the materials from the magazine pages formed a cohesive slime layer that can cause molding problems."

The newspaper mulch was obtained from American Cellulose Co. in Minonk, Ill., which also uses newspapers to manufacture bedding for farm animals.

"The experiment at the Orient mine strip is a good project," said Nawrot. "With the newspaper mulch, we're using a product that has already been harvested and used for another purpose. It's non-polluting, and it gets rid of old newspaper."

Cost comparison of mulches has not been completed, but Nawrot said that newspaper mulch should prove less expensive because it takes less mulch and because it is made by using a recyclable material that is plentiful.

"Less newspaper mulch is required than straw," he said. "It's easier to get to the treatment areas because the hydro-mulch can be sprayed on hills, taking less time to apply."

Nawrot said applying the newspaper mulch was much like applying a papier-mache blanket, and requires about a ton per acre, compared with two tons of straw mulch.

Straw can also be scarce, depending on the growing season, said Nawrot.

"Newspapers are always available," he said. "About 55 percent of all landfill products are paper products."

Nawrot works with the SIU Cooperative Wildlife Research Lab.

"We're a research organization that works with the U.S. Bureau of Mines, dealing in techniques for reclamation of mine sites, dealing with vegetation practices," he said.

"Our goals are to solve the physical problems of reclamation for the purpose of establishing wildlife habitat."