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Managed to spend the last few days getting stuck in to the no-end-in-sight task of reducing the volume of stuff in my house. This has mainly consisted of shredding anything remotely incriminating lots of really boring old financial papers. So far I’ve managed to generate four large bags of shredded paper which I am now attempting to recycle via Freegle.
My general policy is to keep papers for seven financial years and anything to do with pensions or National Insurance until the pension starts to be paid. The seven-year rule dates back to my stint in the Inland Revenue (this was back in the days when they were still efficient), whilst the pension rule is based on a healthy mistrust of any organisation connected with the administration of pensions.
This year the seven-year rule meant disposing of not only my own stuff, but also most of my parents’ old papers (the remaining ones being reclassified as “family history”): hence the large volume of shredding.
Meanwhile, having found myself in paper-reduction mode, I have finally got around to cancelling the Phone Book, Yellow Pages and Thompson Directory and am feeling duly virtuous.
In our municipality, we encourage residents to place their shredded papers in the GreenCart (curbside organics program, collected weekly). This shredded paper will keep food waste and other compostables dry and odour-free, and no one will rummage through a GreenCart to find confidential documents.
Shredded papers can be recycled. However in a Blue Box program, they can cause issues: blown litter at the curb, and the small bits of paper are hard to process at a recycling facility. If you have lots of shredded paper, definitely contact a professional shredding service to take it away and recycle it.
– John Watson, Waste Diversion Education Coordinator, Halton Region
BLOG http://www.haltonrecycles.wordpress.com; TWITTER @HaltonRecycles
You sound a lot more efficient than my local council – the only way that you can recycle shredded paper here is to take it to the recyling centre and stuff it through the slot in the paper bank container which is not much bigger than a post box and difficult to reach for all but the most vertically unchallenged.