A guide to choosing the right shredder

Why use a shredder?

The fastest growing consumer fraud is identity fraud. Identity fraud happens when a thief creates a "credit clone" of you using your personal information. Identity fraud is easy for perpetrators to commit. These criminals are seldom caught and reversing the damage is difficult.

Is Your Rubbish Private?

In a word No, Once you have disposed your rubbish it can be up for grabs from everything such as animals, scavengers and other members of the public. One of the solutions to combat identity Fraud is to shred personal documents. Anything from your daily post which has personal information on is a potential target.

These documents can range from detailed bank and credit card information to every-day mail through your letterbox. Personal information can be obtained anywhere your name, National Insurance number, telephone number and address appear.

Amongst the items you should shred are;

- Any Personal cheques.
- Expired Drivers licenses.
- Bank/Credit Card statements.
- Any personal Invoices/receipts no longer required.
- Payslips showing your income and employer.

Things to consider before purchasing a shredder.

What will you be shredding?

There are many different types of shredders, and which shredder best meets your needs. Several of the items to consider are;

How sensitive is the material you need to shred?
Shredders cut paper into smaller, unrecognizable pieces of paper. Different shredders shred paper into different sizes of paper. The more important the document, the more important it is to use a shredder that will shred the documents into very small pieces.

What type of paper will you be shredding?
Paper comes in many different forms. Some paper is thicker and other paper is thinner, some paper is glossy and other sheets of paper are coarse. You will want to be sure your shredder can handle the paper you will be shredding.

How often will you need to use your shredder?
You will need to take into consideration how often you will be using your paper shredder. Some paper shredders are made only for shredding documents a few times per week, where other shredders can be used continuously. Purchasing a shredder that cannot handle the volume of shredding you need can be very frustrating.

Would you like one large shredder, or several smaller shredders?
Some offices will buy one large shredder for all their shredding needs, where other offices will purchase several smaller shredders and place them throughout the office.

How many sheets do you need to shred at a time?
Different shredders can shred different amounts of paper. Smaller shredders can only handle a few sheets of paper, where larger shredders can shred many sheets of paper at a time. Strip cut shredders can always shred more paper at a time than a cross cut shredder.

What size of paper do you need to shred?
Some shredders are designed to shred small letters, where other shredders can shred newspapers and phone books. You will want to take into consideration what you will need to shred now and what you will be shredding in the future.

Is space/mobility an issue?
Shredders can be very large and heavy. If you need to take a shredder from one office to another, you may want to get a lighter shredder or one with mobile casters. If space is an issue, you may want to consider a thinner shredder that can fit into a tight space.

What are the different types of shredders?

Strip-Cut Shredders
Strip-cut shredders are known as “strip-cut shredders” because of the thin strips they create as they shred paper. These strips can vary in size from 1/2-inch wide to 1/16-inch wide.

Strip-cut shredders require less cutting than cross-cut shredders. Because less cutting is required, strip-cut shredders are able to shred more documents at a time than cross-cut shredders (of the same class).

Cross-Cut Shredders
Cross-cut shredders create crisscross cut pieces of paper. These crisscross cut pieces of paper vary in size depending on the security level of the shredder.

Cross-cut shredders are not able to shred documents as quickly as strip-cut shredders (of the same class) due to the extra cutting involved. Although they can’t shred documents as quickly, cross-cut shredders are able to provide more security to shredded documents than a strip-cut shredder. The shredder by-product has less volume, thus requires less emptying and trips to the dustbin.

General Office Shredders
General office shredders are a medium-size shredder used in most office environments. General office shredders have a higher shred capacity than the smaller desk-side shredders. General office shredders, depending on the model, shred up to five to 30 sheets of paper.

Heavy Duty Shredders
Departmental/heavy duty shredders are a higher-end shredder that are used for continuous office shredding. These shredders are poplar in offices, banks and government buildings. Departmental/heavy-duty shredders, depending on the mode, can shred up to five to 60 sheets of paper at a time.

Industrial Shredders
Industrial shredders are designed for high-volume shredding. High volume, industrial shredders can be used for a large company or for outsourced shredding companies. Industrial shredders are made for continuous, daily use. Some industrial shredders will compact and turn shredded paper into a bail of paper, much like a bail of hay. Industrial shredders, depending on the model, can shred up to 11 to 450 sheets of paper at a time.

What are the different kinds of shredding/security?

Shred Particle Security Levels

Security Level 1
Designed for shredding general records, internal documents, and documents that need to be illegible after they expire.
Measurement (10.5mm Strip Cut) (11.8mm Strip Cut) (10.5mm x 40-80mm Cross Cut)

Security Level 2
Designed for the shredding of internal/in-house documents. For shredding documents such as computer printouts or poor quality photocopies.
Measurement (3.9mm Strip Cut) (5.8mm Strip Cut) (7.5mm x 40-80mm)

Security Level 3
Designed for shredding confidential documents and personal data.
Measurement (1.9mm Strip Cut) (3.9mm x 30-50mm Cross Cut)
Security Level 4
Designed for shredding secret documents and more sensitive information. Can be used by companies to shred confidential documents.
Measurement (1.9mm x 15mm Cross Cut)
Security Level 5
Ideal for high-security requirements.
Measurement (0.78mm x 11mm Cross Cut)
Security Level 6
This is the highest level of shredder security currently available. Very secure shredding for the most sensitive documents.
Measurement (1mm x 4-5mm)

Our most popular brands of shredders are Q Connect, Rexel, HSM and Fellowes.