How do you dispose safely of personal documents when you don't have a shredder?

[Elf]

I am having a big clear out and will have a HUGE stack of papers to throw out very soon. I really don't want to have to tear them up by hand, my fingers will fall off.

Is it safe to just put them in the recycling or rubbish? My dad followed a bin lorry once and said he then felt safe about personal stuff being thrown away. But it should be recycled really shouldn't it and is that as safe?

We don't really have a safe place to have a bonfire. Are there municipal shredders?!

Any ideas? Thanks.

buy a shredder - is safest !

buy a shredder they are only cheap and its better to be safe than sorry! i think i got mine for £15 from argos but im sure there are cheaper ones.

otoh my grandad cuts out any bits of personal info i.e adresses account numbers and cuts them into little pieces as he doesnt want to buy a shredder

I shred ours then it goes on the copost heap

Do you work? Do you have a shredder at work you could use?

I actually do highly confidential documents at work - because the typical home shredder is no deterrant to someone hoe erally wants to find out your stuff. They don't cut the pieces small enough.

Buy a shredder - oh dear. I'm trying to clear out, not buy stuff Thanks for the advice, pity I don't work at an office, though maybe dh has access to one, I shall ask. Thanks all.

Do you not have a fireplace you could burn them in?

Cross-cut home shredders are good enough I think?

Or else tear out just the vital bits that need destroying & cut them up with scissors like micci's grandad.

(Do you have a barbecue? YOu could burn them in that)

I've heard soaking them overnight works well (like a stray receipt in the washer), though I haven't tried it as we have a shredder.
Or burn them in the bbq.

Put them in fire, or if not, tear out important info and light over sink of water.

Mine broke recently so I have got this problem too

You could scrunch up some of it into balls and put it on your compost heap if you have one

Definitely dont just chuck it/recyle it - someone somewhere will use your details to their advantage

Gerbil bedding?

burn it

In the fire

this is a fun way to dispose of them:

put them in a washing up bowl
soak until like pulp
dispose of soggy mess

Cheap non electric shredder is what we have. Less than £10 from Wilko/large supermarket.

I rip off the parts of letters etc with name/address on and shred those and the rest just gets recycled to save on effort.

Sorry, I know you don't want any more shredding advice, but I shred mine then put 'em in the compost. Compost seems very happy with this arrangement. Couldn't you borrow someone's shredder for a few hours?

I do that too onepiece, but you have to watch for the bastards who print your name and address in 2 or 3 places, not just at the top (eg credit card applications and catalogue order forms )

Barbecue this weekend

we burn all our personal papers on fire in winter or dustbin burner in summer

or wait till autumn and have a bonfire!

We just remove name, address and account details and rip that bit of paper. Either in the bin or fro a barbecue

we have a special garden chimney type buner thingy (that doesnlt make sense at all)

we burn ours in there, especially after I melted our shredder!!!

Gerbils > compost heap.

Or bonfire. Next door neighbour got me doinmg this (pre-gerbils) because he insists that our council landfill all re-cycling anyway...

If you put it all in a big cardboard box & drop in a tea light, you should have a nice contained blaze. Ashes > compost heap if available!

Yes Wendy I point this out to my dh constantly.

Post a wanted: shredder message on Freecycle. People sometimes upgrade and chuck out the old one.

oh sorry, just read your comment about not wanting one. You could freecycle it away afterwards though, if you got it that way, I guess.