Paper shredding isn’t always welcome as recycled paper. Turns out there are hidden complexities even to just protecting your privacy and reducing waste.
Wirecutter at The New York Times surprised us by explaining how putting shredded paper in a recycling bin can create all sorts of trouble.
Shredded paper can cause problems at recycling facilities, leading to equipment malfunctions and contamination. The machines that separate the different materials (paper, plastic, glass) are OK with standard pieces of paper, newspapers etc. but can’t cope with small bits of paper that get into the machines. The long thin shreds are a problem let alone the little pieces of almost ‘paper dust’ from some shredders. Even bags of shredding are trouble when they’re opened and get into the works.
Check with your local council/authority to see if shredded paper is acceptable as part of the curbside pickup.
There may be a special drop off location for ‘special’ recycling like electronics, batteries, light bulbs and bags of paper shredding.
Shredding alternatives to consider
Some places have special ‘shredding events’ where you can take your personal papers and have them handled in a large machine then the output disposed of.
Compost is a good way to handle shredding, especially the shredders that turns pages into tiny squares.
You don’t even need a special compost bin, the shredding can be mixed into garden beds as mulch. Let the rain and earthworms take it from there.
Do you need to shred all that paper?
Definitely shred paper that has confidential information like bank account details, account numbers etc.
But pages that only have your name and address are easily available to anyone trying, so shredding those pages might not be worth the trouble. A lot of junk mail comes into that category.
Paper shredders often overheat and stop if they are used too much and too quickly so it’s in your interest to cut back on the shredding.
Wirecutter suggests “Instead of shredding documents that have only your name, address, and phone number on them, you can cover that information with permanent black marker and then put the sheets into the recycling bin.”
Another possibility is tearing off the name/address part and shredding that, leaving the rest of the page in the general recycling.
Scan before shredding
Don’t get too carried away with shredding. Make sure what you’re destroying isn’t important. We’ve seen a few cases where a vital document is lost to over-zealous shredding.
If in doubt, scan the document to an image or PDF before disposing of the paper version.
Scanning from within Microsoft Word or Office
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