# Do you tear the address labels off boxes before you recycle them? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 12, 2018, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429 "2018-11-12T22:05:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/21 "2018-11-15T11:14:42Z")
I’m pretty careful about this stuff, so I cut off any label that has more than my address on it. I’m not sure what all the other alphanumeric or scan-able data on some labels represents, so I err on the side of caution. FWIW: We also have a PO box which gets all financial and work mail, and a business which receives all our amazon/etc. boxes. All the suspect or revealing paper is collected and shredded every month. Boxes from expensive purchases transported to a nearby\* dumpster. We never leave anything out front that indicates expensive goodies are within. \*I rent a unit there – I’m contractually allowed to use it. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/22 "2018-11-15T15:17:37Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Sure, but if you’re going to take something seriously, take something seriously that matters. Time spent monitoring your credit to protect yourself from stolen credit card data via skimmers and POS theft is many leagues more productive than worrying about package labels. Package labels are something way down the list that you worry about after the actual significant threats are being handled in some fashion. I always have time for security. Don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/23 "2018-11-15T15:47:22Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I always have time for security. Don’t you? Well, I do have other things going on in my life. Which means I’d rather prioritize against the things that are actual statistically significant threats over things that are largely feel-good acts. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/24 "2018-11-15T15:48:14Z")
I checked YES because I used to do it at my previous residence but rarely do it now that I live in a rural area. My Mom was kind of paranoid I suppose as she’d never through away anything with her name and address on it. Magazines had to have the labels torn off or obliterated. When she was moving out of her apartment she had a stack of x-ray films about 5" high that she’d kept from various doctors. they had her name on them and some ID number as well. She wanted them shredded for disposal. Too big for her shredder, so we compromised by me cutting off the section with the name and shredding that. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/25 "2018-11-15T16:17:38Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I always have time for security. Don’t you? I have \*time \*for security, but not the motivation. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2018, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/26 "2018-11-17T04:23:25Z")
In the spirit of the question, yes. I do often (but not always) tend to remove identifying info from trash. It’s just ingrained in me. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2018, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/27 "2018-11-17T05:29:53Z")
I’m not sure what information is going to be gleaned from the address on a label that won’t already be obvious to someone _in my driveway_ picking through my trash can. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/28 "2018-11-17T14:00:53Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > I’m not sure what information is going to be gleaned from the address on a label that won’t already be obvious to someone _in my driveway_ picking through my trash can. And once it leaves your driveway??? It’s not the address label, it’s what the address label is attached to. Crooks are often opportunists. (I.e., lazy.) Grabbing something interesting with an address on it is less work than taking the time to write down the house number, finding out the street name, etc. This laziness towards security is the by far the biggest reason there’s so much malware circulating out there. Stop being lazy. You are part of the chain. Do your part. ---
**Author:** ![Allysium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Allysium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Allysium)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2018, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/29 "2018-11-18T03:44:24Z")
To be honest, this all seems excessive. You can’t live a life ruled by fear of people finding you. The best you can do is reasonably protect yourself. I’ve studied true crime cases a lot, it’s a bit of an obsession for me…and I’ve never heard of a case where someone’s address was found from the label on a box. I have heard of many cases where a criminal entered through an unlocked door. Reason dictates that one’s address on packages is of no concern. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/30 "2018-11-19T13:41:55Z")
I do, and I also tear my address off catalogs and other mail, for the simple reason that our recycling pickup service is extremely sloppy, and I don’t want anyone coming after me because my discarded paper is in their yard. I also don’t want to incur the wrath of people in my neighborhood if they discover my name on a piece of mail they disagree with, like a donation request from Planned Parenthood. The torn-off addresses go through the shredder, along with any credit or insurance applications. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/31 "2018-11-19T14:09:21Z")
> [@galen\_ubal](#): > > I’d say no, with one caveat\*. > > If I’m going to re-use them to mail something, I’ll use a marker to cover over the addresses. This is more to ensure that there’s no confusion as to where it’s going or coming from, though, not as a security measure. > > \*Of course there’s someone quibbling over details. This is the Dope! 😃 I do this, too. And I do shred credit card offers and other “one click” theft opportunities. But my address? Phone number? I’m old-fashioned, I still have that stuff published in the phone book. (Remember phone books? Someone still drops them on my driveway from time to time.) > [@wellanuff](#): > > I do, but primarily because if a box or wrapper blows out of my recycling bin while the garbage truck is swinging it overhead, I don’t want some idiot bringing it back to me and saying, “Don’t litter on my lawn!” > > I took the true lesson of Alice’s Restaurant to heart. 🙂 That makes sense. I don’t have that problem. > [@ftg](#): > > And once it leaves your driveway??? > > It’s not the address label, it’s what the address label is attached to. Crooks are often opportunists. (I.e., lazy.) Grabbing something interesting with an address on it is less work than taking the time to write down the house number, finding out the street name, etc. > > This laziness towards security is the by far the biggest reason there’s so much malware circulating out there. > > Stop being lazy. You are part of the chain. Do your part. There are far more important ways in which I should beef up my security before I do anything like that. For instance, I should use a password app and change all my passwords to strong passwords, and stop using passwords a human being can remember.I confess, I’m afraid I will forget the password to that app and be completely screwed… But so what if someone finds a box in a landfill with my address on it. I live in a well-to-do neighborhood. You can reasonably assume “something good is in that house” by picking an address in my neighborhood at random. No thief in his right mind is going to specifically target ME because he found a box with my address on it that used to contain a … What sort of goodie are we even talking about here? I bought a fancy camera on line, and I bought a charger for camera batteries (that fit all the cameras in that line, cheap and expensive) and they came in essentially the same box. The most impressive boxes I get from Amazon hold kitty litter. Yeah, I’m sure there are opportunists who want to steal my kitty litter… I guess if I bought a super expensive TV monitor it might possibly be worth removing the address label as I cut the box into trash-collector-friendly sized pieces. I doubt it, but possibly? But every house on my street contains some nice laptops. Most contain much nicer TV equipment than I have, … if I’m targeted, it won’t be through my trash, it will be based on my geography. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/32 "2018-11-19T14:22:36Z")
Absolutely. Any boxes or packages have the label cut off, usually with a matte knife ( box cutter ). It cuts down but doesn’t eliminate the chances of identity theft. Similarly, all paper mail gets opened and any pages with identifying info are shredded. Banal sheets are recycled. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/33 "2018-11-19T14:53:14Z")
Our curbside recycling doesn’t include cardboard; gotta drive that stuff down to the recycling center a few miles down the road. Once I dump the cardboard in that giant bin, nobody’s ever going to do anything with my address. It’s gone. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/34 "2018-11-19T15:23:35Z")
Once the garbage man dumps my recycling into the truck, nobody is going to do anything with the address, either. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429/35 "2018-11-19T15:27:39Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Absolutely. Any boxes or packages have the label cut off, usually with a matte knife ( box cutter ). > > It cuts down but doesn’t eliminate the chances of identity theft. > > Similarly, all paper mail gets opened and any pages with identifying info are shredded. Banal sheets are recycled. What exactly do you consider “identifying info”? Anything that associates your name to your street address? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tear-the-address-labels-off-boxes-before-you-recycle-them/824429.md?page=1)