Many of us now routinely use paper shredders at home or in the office.. they are certainly quick, quiet and inexpensive and are useful to destroy personal and confidential information.. However there is some issue which is often overlooked and that is the recycling element of shredded paper.

Although many organisations won’t accept the paper shredded for several reasons.. Many recycling organisations won’t accept shredded paper for various reasons.

Probably the major reason is that of safety, certainly processing shredded paper can be dangerous.. It’s awkward to handle and sort, falls off conveyor belts, gets tangled in machinery and also represents a tangible fire risk. There is also a difficulty with sorting, many processing units are unable to sort or detect paper the size of shredded paper.

Combined with the fact that shredding the paper reduces the length of the fibres.. This will actually, reduce the quality and strength of any paper produced from this recycling. You can see why many companies would rather not deal with huge amounts of shredded paper.

So what’s the solution?

Well of course you should always check with your local recycling scheme, there are some companies who are set up to deal with shredded paper. If not try and reduce the amount of paper that you do shred, of course all confidential and personal papers should be shredded but often we get into a habit of shredding everything.

The other obvious use of shredded papers is to help in composting, although it cannot obviously be recycled then – it can be used or disposed of much more easily. You certainly should never risk not destroying confidential information, but think about the environmental options when possible..

Read how you can save money and reduce land fill by refilling your printer with Compatible Toner and many other green tips like paper shredding