Shredded Paper

Shredded Paper…. urgh… a pain to produce, and even more of a pain to dispose of… luckily both my parents actively make and use their own compost. Some councils do not seem to like shredded paper in the recycling!? But, it is a source confusion for many. Therefore, here is some information and tips to help you!

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Why is it Difficult to Recycle?

Some local councils will accept shredded paper in your regular household recycling collections. However, they may request that it is first placed in a paper bag/envelope first. Ensure that you check with your local council’s policy before placing shredded paper into your recycling bin.

There are two main reasons why the recycling of shredded paper is tricky / avoided:

1. It is difficult to recycle into new paper items because good quality pulp cannot be produced from shredded paper. Shredding creates very short lengths of paper, cutting the fibres / fabric of the paper at the same time.
2. Small pieces of paper can get trapped in the recycling machinery, which can be a fire hazard. For this reason, a lot of local councils won’t collect shredded waste for recycling. Although, I am pretty sure that loose, shredded paper flying out of your paper recycling, would not please your local street cleaning team either!

Minimise Your Shredding

• Only shred paper documents if they genuinely contain personal / confidential information on them e.g. credit card bill, bank statement… . Flyers / advertisements do not need to be shredded. They can be put in your recycling bin for collection as usual.
• Where possible, cut private / confidential information off the paper and only shred that. Then the remainder can be placed straight in your recycling. For parcels / boxes (e.g. from Amazon), I use a Sharpie / black marker pen to obscure address information, so that it can be placed straight into the recycling.

That said, moving to paper-free bills etc. reduces the amount you NEED to shred in the first place…

How to recycle Shredded Paper

If you are unable to put shredded paper in the recycling boxes (i.e. it is not permitted by your council), there are a number of ways to up-cycle and / or recycle:

• Bedding for small animals (rabbits, gerbils, hamsters…): Furthermore, providing the pets are vegetarian, this can be added to the compost (see below).
• Compost: If you, or someone you know, has a garden compost, then shredded paper can be mixed in with the compost – it is great for soaking up the excess moisture in soggy compost!
• Packaging material: far more environmentally friendly than polystyrene to add additional protection to breakable items.
• Recycling Centres: Ask at your local recycling centre – they may accept it!