how to up/recycle LOTS of paper trash with black plastic toner?

myself and my family have this sort of commune thing going that's being paid for by architectural work. so there is quite a bit of trash produced each day with prints that were wrong or changed or messed up.
a lot of the blank paper will be used in sheet mulching. but most of the paper has bits of black toner which is made from melted plastic. one option is to haul a dumpster out here and throw it all away. but i feel like there must be a better way to remove it than throwing it in the trash.
the plastic toner definitely wouldn't be okay for composting or mulching, right? does anybody know if something like this could be recycled with the city?

ps it's kip 3100 toner if anybody knows how to get more info on the ingredients or whatever

i realize this is probably such a weird question. but there is seriously so much paper piled up and i feel convicted to use or recycle it

you could make your own recycled paper.

this is how i first got into paper making years ago, being an artist i went through a LOT of paper and made a lot of paper waste. this was also high quality papers, little strips cut off for projects and cutting up paper, and when i started doing book binding i always had huge bags of trash paper bits.

the simplest project and way to recycle paper is to tear it up a lot and throw it in a blender with some water. you can do this with bills, newspaper, paper bags from the grocery store, and all your misprints.
once you get it back to being all mushy and pulpy then either get something to use as a vat, or use your sink or bathtub, fill it with water and put the pulp in. theres some fiddling around with it to figure out how much water to pulp ratio, which will determine the thickness of your paper.

then you take a screen, a window screen would work, but fancier is to get or make an actual deckle.

you hold the screen submerged in the water, with the other hand swirl all the pulpy water around to get it flowing evenly, and then pull your deckle up. on the deckle is you sheet of paper. wear gloves if you have concerns about whats in the paper, although i dont and havent ever had problems, but i dont know if you are extra sensitive.

there is a lot more to the craft of paper making, and you can get into all sorts of more advanced and crafty things with it, like putting flower petals or seeds into the water right before you pull the sheet, using coloring to get various colors, how to flip it on felt and press it to keep it flat, etc...but the basic method is really a very easy project you can do in an afternoon.

Welcome to permies Ashley!

I think composting paper would be fine because many companies have switched over to vegetable and soy based inks; however, the paper may take longer to decompose because of the lignins contained in the paper. There are two articles- one by The Compost Gardener and one by Cornell- located here and here that I think do a nice quick job explaining paper composting safety.

I think you will be happy to know that the D-I-Y community loves paper; there are so many ways to upcycle/recycle paper!

Turn it into paper again:


Make baskets:


Home decorations:


Paper Bead Jewelry:


Amazing Paper Bags: (I definitely suggest checking out the Newspaper Weaving Channel; so much cool stuff!)





If you would like inspiration, there are fantastic Pinterest threads here and here about this topic! To make money off of paper recycling, I think Etsy is a nice place to buy and sell things.