Recycling shredded paper (merged)

Broccoli

I shred confidential papers, and then burn them, as I read that they cannot be recycled. Can anyone confirm if this is a myth, or correct. I am confused.

MichH

I think our local recycling centre (in Bristol) accepts paper, I'm not sure if we can put it out for our weekly collection though.

I tend to use ours occassionally in thin layers in our compost bin so it's not too wet.

Piggles12345

The council where I used to live (Warwickshire) used to collect shredded paper, but it had to be in a tied up plastic carrier, which always made me worry about whether they then recycled the carrier bag!

moonrakerz

Broccoli wrote: »

I shred confidential papers, and then burn them, as I read that they cannot be recycled. Can anyone confirm if this is a myth, or correct. I am confused.

A lot of councils won't bother collecting shreddings, or even dealing with them.

The reason is that the recycling targets they have to meet are by weight; so a ton of old newspapers takes up a lot less space than a ton of shredded newspapers !

torbrex

I put my shredded papers into old cereal boxes before putting out for collection.

ryandj

I put mine in the compost bin in the garden, it adds a bit of dryness to it!

Some councils do not take shredded paper, the reason being that the fibres in the paper are cut too short to be useful for recycling. Our council (North Herts) does take them though!

Travelqueen

Shredded paper is also more difficult to sort in a MRF which relies on the 'floppiness' of the paper relative to other wastes, e.g. cans etc to sort it. Shredded paper tend to get mingled and act as contaminents in other waste streams such as plastics, films etc.
The composting plan is a good one, I also make free 'logs' from mine with newspapers. Alternatively there are companies that collect shredded confidential papers from offices and recycle them - they are able to do this as there is less contamination.
News and pams is one of the higher valued waste streams hence why they do it.
Hope that helps a little?

Seakay

In Cardiff you can put shredded paper in with garden waste for recycling

lilibeth

Is there a way to recycle it ourselves at home into note paper say?

Penelope_Penguin

I use paper that's been printed on one side only again - lists, scrap paper pads, scribbling paper for the children.

East Yorkshire then let you put shredded paper into the recycle bins, and I also use it for bedding for the hens, then into the compost