How do you dispose of confidential waste?

[canthavetoomanylights]

I don’t have a shredder. I have lots of paperwork with personal/financial info on to get rid of. Short of a bonfire (I won’t) what else would you do.

I just put things like that in the paper recycling on bin day.

I'd get a shredder especially if you've a lot paper to get rid of. Is there one at your work you could quietly use?

Another option would be ripping every sheet into tiny pieces but the novelty would quickly wear off. The only other thing I can think of is soaking all the paper so it turns into a mulch, but that might be quite time consuming, and I'm not sure about the success rate.

Buy a shredder. I use mine all the time. I leave it plugged in so it's easy to use. They're not expensive.(it has to go in general waste too, not recycling)

you could pay to have someone collect it, but it's expensive & a trust thing.

you could put it into a bucket isn't audit water but it's a bloody faff.

We burn it in the fire pit in summer, or the wood burner in winter.

Hot soapy bath, mulch it down, make attractive sculptures and death masks.

Or buy a shredder from Argos.

I just rip the bits with names and identifying info on into tiny bits

I just chuck it in the recycling. I do have a chep shredder but rarely can be arsed to use it.

To be honest, I get so little paper stuff these days that the chances of someone going through my paper recycling and actually finding anything more incriminating than my worrying pizza intake is minimal.

I go through every sheet and black out the name/address with a thick sharpie before I shred it. I'm am thinking of the patience of the Iranians who assembled all those strips of paper from the American embassy to identify staff.

We have a decent shredder and then bags of shredding go in the bin. I have also used a local shredding service when I had a lot of papers from my parents house to get rid of. They collected and sent me photos of the sealed bags going into their massive shredder along with a certificate of destruction! I could have taken it to them and watched it being shredded but chose the collection due to the number of bags.

I invested in a good shredder. I fill an outside bin with the shredding and mix the shreds well. There are a few people in my town who use the shreds for animal bedding and packaging. (I do know those people for years!)

Shred for regular/occasional use.
After a massive paperwork clearout, we burnt in a cheap garden incinerator - why can't you do this?

I’ve got a little roller that covers up your details - takes seconds and you can do both sides if needed. A shredder that cross cuts is better if it’s full sheets of paper that have the information.

Get a stamp that disguises the wording.

Any reason you can't buy a shredder? Get a cross cut one, not the cheaper straight cut ones. When I sift post, it goes straight in there and done in 5 seconds.

My in laws have one of these roller pens which covers the info, then they throw in their regular recycling. musthaveideas.co.uk/products/data-defender

We've got a shredder which I absolutely love using 😂 But you can also soak it in the sink so it's soft, scrunch it up and chuck it in the garden waste.

I just put it in my recycling bin.

Cheap shredder and then into the garden compost bin. Being dry it offsets the damper content such as weeds, kitchen waste etc. My compost is awesome!

For bank statements etc i just tear off all identifying details and leave the rest of the page intact. The torn off pieces can be retorn or soaked to make a mulch . The whole lots go in paper recycling.

Water mulch then compost in garden. I don't have space for a shredder unfortunately. But if i did i would compost the shredding!

Get a shredder. My borough is coming down hard on waste found in streets with addresses on. Issuing large fines with little room for appeal.

I don’t think you can put shredded paper in recycling bins. I believe it has to be a certain size to be processed and recycled.

Yes, my council says not to put shredded paper in recycling bins, but to put it in with food waste (which gets composted).

Give it to M&FiL who burn it in winter in the fire pit in the garden

If you have bags and bags pay for a one off service. Or steal a confidential waste bag from work and don’t tell them.

This. Just throw in the wood burner and set a match to it. My DM asks me to take hers home and do the same as she does t have a shredder. Alternatively, set light to it in an old plant pot in the garden if no fire pit.