Streetlife

hi Caroline,

it will be easier and cheaper long run to buy a better shredder.

I had the same problem recently with getting rid of 3 years of tax paperwork, bit of shredding, ripping and soaking in water works well, I couldnt find a council type facility for shredding or ........... take to a friend outside London who can burn it for you perhaps.

Thanks both of you - Shahid I suspect you are right. But soaking the paper is a good idea - hadn't thought of that arwd!

shredding, ripping, soaking, throwing away.. too much effort lass..

At the office we have one of these.  A bit more expensive than the average "home" model but it is utterly reliable, has never got jammed, and simply eats paper.

Personally I think we worry far too much about this sort of thing at home though.  My personal tax paperwork really isn't that interesting - why on earth would someone want to go to the effort of getting it out of my bin?!

I had a mountain of papers with personal data to get rid of (other people's data so couldn't take chances) and searched to see if i could find anything for a one-off online.  I couldn't find anything, which surprised me.  In the end I bought a more powerful home shredder and got to work.  It doesn't help that the council say that shredded paper shouldn't go into recycling - so I took the a number of large bags to the tip.  I do slip in small amounts of shredded papers into the orange bags without any being rejected - but I draw the line at large amounts.

Hmmm - anyone know why shredded paper shouldn't go into recycling?  I would have thought that would be perfect.

See http://www.streetlife.com/4e9abb38f97ab51dc3000777/?r

There was a thread about it here some while back.  There seem to be two problems.  First it causes mess at the sorting stage, causing things to clog up.  One poster here described how the recycling facility seemed to have lots of bits of shredded paper floating around.  Second it reduces the quality of the end product because the fibre stands get shortened - I am rather less convinced by this personally since the paper isn't actually pulverised.

And my alter ego has found the thread for you!

Hahah - Thanks to both Mathew G's............

Much appreciated.

To Matthew G (with the blue picture :)  - you asked " why on earth would someone want to go to the effort of getting it out of my bin?!" - it's possible that info on there might be very useful for identity theft, as it would probably have your name address and tax or NI number on it - and it's difficult recovering from ID theft... so a worthwhile precaution I imagine!

When we did a clearout of confidential papers we contacted a commercial shredding business we found online.  It was £50 for a minimum of 5 bags.  We only filled one and a half so it was pretty expensive.  But secure.

I have an Aurora cross cut shredder which is brilliant.. The first one packed up when well out of guarantee, but nevertheless they replaced it without question, The new one has been going for a year now and I highly recommend it,

Thanks for the reccommendation. I am impressed with it's online reviews so I have bought one myself. That and the shredder oil, from Amazon, only costs £34.06.  Pretty much a bargain.

I have a small shredder I don't need. Bit noisy but it works OK. Free to anyone who'll come and get it.

I have had a Ryman shredder for some years and it still works well. However, Anna, I am curious about the shredder oil you mentioned. What is it for? I ask because it may be something that would be useful to me at some time in the future.

This is the shredder link - It has great reviews.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aurora-AS610C-Sheet-Cross-Cut-Shredder/dp/B001W3MN9A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335099561&sr=8-1

Thank you for that link Anna. I have had one or two minor problems with my shredder recently so perhaps it needs sharpening.

Good news, i have just found out that MissU Stationers in Trinity Road are offering a shredding service for about ₤1 per kilo.

Old dog thank you - that is great news!

Miss U are great for loads of stuff - have used them for years and always friendly and helpful plus good prices.....

Don't put shredded paper in the recycling because it will bung up the mechanical sorter.   They only want sheets of paper, nothing smaller than A4 minimum as I understood it when I visited the plant.

I didn't know that about recycling shredded paper Valerie.  It has always been taken,  Should it go in with the normal rubbish then?

They take the orange bags and sort the content from a conveyor belt as best they can so of course best if we do it right.   The sorting machine is a mighty metal series of slots of different sizes and it shakes it all about.   The paper is supposed to stay on the top.   If it drops through the slots it bungs it up and the machine will be out of action for a couple of hours, apparently.

Then the cans and the pastic get sorted - the plastic by COLOUR!   Apparently the colour denotes the type of plastic.   The glass gets broken up by the system.

Everything unrecyclable goes down to Mucking on the barges and burned in an incinerator (with fantastic filters we are told and hope!) and the final clinker residue is sold as hardcore!   So everything is used!    It is a joint venture between 4 Councils and the operator which deems it is in the interests of the operator to ensure as much as possible is recycled.   So rubbish from Hammersmith, Chelsea and Lambeth comes to Wandsworth.