# Commercial paper shredding: Be careful **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 11, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-paper-shredding-be-careful/631192 "2012-08-11T14:12:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-paper-shredding-be-careful/631192/21 "2012-08-22T23:32:06Z")
> [@littlespeedysuperbike](#): > > Papers make nice kindling and put out useful heat if you’ve got a bunch of them. you need to be careful burning paper. burning paper becomes airborne easily and can start fires, including in your chimney. even in the country where burning might be allowed you might need to use a burn barrel with maybe opening less than 1/2 inch. outdoor burning may need permits and in drought and dry areas is a hazard. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-paper-shredding-be-careful/631192/22 "2012-08-24T14:31:26Z")
> [@NetTrekker](#): > > I live in a condo community with dumpsters so anyone could easily grab my discarded trash and get more information about me than I would like, and there are some not-nice people here. So I used to have a home-office cross-cut shredder but it took up space and was a bit annoying to deal with the resulting confetti (I never just dumped the whole bucket into one garbage bag because a determined ID thief could still piece it together like a jigsaw puzzle). I think you overestimate the desire for identity thieves to rummage through a condo dumpster reeking of rotting meat and kitty litter to find a bag with shredded mail. They must then carefully re-assemble the shredded mail (soaked in spoiled chicken juice) only to find out that the letter from the bank only mentions a tiny change to the bank’s privacy policy and doesn’t have any other information. This identity theft from the mail paranoia needs to get grounded. Think about the people with houses…they have unlocked mailboxes next to the road in which thieves could steal their (intact and whole) mail _[FONT=Trebuchet MS]without even leaving their car!_ [/FONT] ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-paper-shredding-be-careful/631192/23 "2012-08-24T14:40:04Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > I think you overestimate the desire for identity thieves to rummage through a condo dumpster reeking of rotting meat and kitty litter to find a bag with shredded mail. They must then carefully re-assemble the shredded mail (soaked in spoiled chicken juice) only to find out that the letter from the bank only mentions a tiny change to the bank’s privacy policy and doesn’t have any other information. > > This identity theft from the mail paranoia needs to get grounded. Think about the people with houses…they have unlocked mailboxes next to the road in which thieves could steal their (intact and whole) mail _[FONT=Trebuchet MS]without even leaving their car!_ [/FONT] +1 - no one is going to go through the trouble of reassembling a cross-cut pile of anybody’s papers, with the possible exception of the Mossad gaining access to Iranian papers. _Maybe_ someone would bother with a simple strip shredder, but event that seems highly unlikely. And, you’ll be sad to know that I see more and more people installing locked mailboxes in my neighborhood. I’m not exactly sure what the postperson does with bulky stuff that would fit in the box but not through the slot - I guess leave a pickup notice. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-paper-shredding-be-careful/631192/24 "2012-08-24T14:45:21Z")
> [@NetTrekker](#): > > So I used to have a home-office cross-cut shredder but it took up space and was a bit annoying to deal with the resulting confetti (I never just dumped the whole bucket into one garbage bag because a determined ID thief could still piece it together like a jigsaw puzzle). I could see reassembling the confetti from a strip-type shredder (which is, I think, what happened to the US embassy in Tehran after the take-over and subsequent hostage-taking), but I _really_ can’t imagine anyone with the patient to reassemble the product of a cross-cut shredder. Mine creates shreds that are 0.156" x 1.1875". ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-paper-shredding-be-careful/631192/25 "2012-08-24T14:54:46Z")
Given that I’m not throwing away state secrets or the secret recipe to KFC’s special sauce, I’m pretty sure my trash can cross shredder is sufficient. No need to have Iron Mountain come by with their big shredder trucks. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-paper-shredding-be-careful/631192/26 "2012-08-24T16:09:05Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > +1 - no one is going to go through the trouble of reassembling a cross-cut pile of anybody’s papers, with the possible exception of the Mossad gaining access to Iranian papers. _Maybe_ someone would bother with a simple strip shredder, but event that seems highly unlikely. > > And, you’ll be sad to know that I see more and more people installing locked mailboxes in my neighborhood. I’m not exactly sure what the postperson does with bulky stuff that would fit in the box but not through the slot - I guess leave a pickup notice. In many neighborhoods you have no choice as the PO has decided all new areas have to have centrally-located mailboxes for the whole street. There are two big boxes at the bottom of the unit with keys in them. When you get a package that won’t fit in your box they put it there and put the key in your mailbox. If you get a package that won’t fit in the big box in our neighborhood, the mail carrier drives to your door, races up, rings the bell, throws down the box and leaves. (UPS does the same thing. Good thing this town is a lot safer than where I used to live as those packages would not have lasted on the front step for 10 seconds in LA.) ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-paper-shredding-be-careful/631192/27 "2012-08-24T16:13:37Z")
Shredders [approved by the NSA](http://nsaapproved.com/category/paper-shredders/) for Top Secret material - Its the only way to be sure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-paper-shredding-be-careful/631192.md?page=1)