Paper Shredders

Paper shredders are used to destroy paper documents, usually using one of two major methods of shredding.

The main reason for shredding paper is to prevent confidential information being retrieved and stolen, such as business operations information. This has made paper shredders relatively common in business use.

Recent concerns about Identity Theft has made paper shredders become increasingly common for domestic use, for example, to destroy bills and banking details, and so prevent them being reused by criminals.

Security and shredder types

There are six main levels of security for shredding purposes, with 1 being the lowest, and 6 the highest.

Paper shredders commonly use one of two main methods of shredding:

Strip cut paper shredders

These are generally lower security shredders, as they leave long strips that are theoretically easier to reconstruct. However, so long as the strip cut is thin enough and goes through entire words, strip cut shredders can provide the level of security required for most domestic and even some business use.

Cross cut paper shredders

Cross cut paper shredders shred documents into much smaller pieces so that reconstruction is especially difficult. The higher security models shred documents into tiny peices, which will generally serve to protect most confidential data from retrieval.

Paper shredder references:

• Paper Shredders from Fellowes: Fellowes International list of suppliers
• GBC Shredders: Paper shredder manufacturer
• Paper shredders: a range of paper shredders, from strip-cut to cross-cut, from A2B Office (UK)
• Paper Shredder Me: A reference site of different models of paper shredders available in the UK.
• Office World Paper Shredders: The main paper shredders category from Office World Me. Other sections include cardboard shredders, large office shredders, small office shredders.
• Paper Shredders explained: paper shredders explained at Wikipedia.