7 ways to recycle shredded paper
Find out how to recycle shredded paper
Some councils take shredded paper with the kerbside recycling or at your local bring bank. Other councils will not accept shredded paper for recycling at all. You’ll need to phone your local district council and ask their policy.
The main reasons for not accepting shredded paper is that some paper mills cannot deal with it. It’s said that shredded paper makes weaker fibres and produces an inferior quality product. In some paper mills, the small fragments cause problems with machinery, so it will depend on where your individual council sends their paper to, as to whether shredded paper can be included in your local recycling.
If your local council will accept shredded paper for recycling, you’re lucky! But what if they won’t?
Here are 7 ways to reuse shredded paper - Please add your suggestions in the comments below!
- Composting is a great way to get rid of shredded paper; especially for confidential information such as bank statements. It’s the perfect way to avoid identity theft!
- If you don’t have a compost bin, you can put a small amount of shredded paper into a wormery.
- Shredded paper makes a great fire starter, unlike sheets of flat paper - offer it to a friend with a woodburner to make paper logs from.
- Some shredded paper can be used for pet bedding, underneath the straw. Beware of toxic inks though.
- Talking of pets, you can use shredded paper in a cat litter box.
- Use shredded paper as packing material when sending gifts - it’s far more eco friendly than polystyrene (styrofoam) peanuts.
- If you fancy a messy, but fun project, try using it to make your own paper!
What about you? How do you recycle shredded paper?
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We use shredded paper for either pet bedding or for packaging business parcels.
Does anyone have any ideas to either stop or recycle plastic charity bags. They seem to appear through our letterbox 2 or 3 times each week from a plethora of different sources. You’re supposed to fill them with unwanted clothes etc which we do occasionally but we get far too many. Does everyone have the same problem and if so what do you do with them?
Paul e Watts
We compost it or use it with other materials as a mulch in the garden. Started using it now to make our own paper too, although messy indoors so waiting for warmer weather to do this more outside.
If you mix equal parts shredded paper with equal parts grass clippings, mix well and leave in a tub or bag, covered with a little moisture, you end up with lovely fine compost suitable for raising seeds in. Great way to use up both without overloading the compost heap with them.
@Paul Watts: I had this problem with charity bags. I wouldn’t have minded but they were never picked up. I even saw the van come up the road and drive away without picking my neighbours bags,well cheesed off she was! I made a notice saying “NO charity bags please!” The NO is in red. I laminated it and stuck it on my door, just above the letter box. Its been there for about 2 years now and it seems to have worked. I know, because I see bags of stuff waiting to be collected in my road. I’ve had 2 bags posted during this time and I filled the bags and took them to the clothes bank.And once I chased a man who had just posted one through the letter box and asked him to take it back and quickly explained why. he actually agreed there was a problem with collection. Anyway,at least I don’t have 2 or 3 bags, a week, posted through the door.
I’m don’t use the charity bags as these bags have lots of issues, with some of them being commercial companies who use various charity names (normally with their consent), but the items don’t end up in charity shops as we might expect them to. It’s best to donate stuff in the shop itself. If I do get a charity bag I use it as a bin bag.
It’s best not to put those multipart forms - like invoices etc that make copies as you write on them (often pale pink yellow or green) - in the shredding. I think they make recycling office paper less valuable too.
line all garden paths with at least 3 inches of shredded paper–>> keeps weeds and soil compaction down.
stuff cat cushions or toddler toys full of it, as they are soft and don’t last that long anyway.
line the laying hens nests with shredded newspaper, they love the rustle and bustle of it and make a perfect circle out of it. keep a bucket full of it, for “bed” changes>> keeps eggs clean.
Like the idea of making paper logs, do now have new wood burner stove so will look for ‘thing’ to make paper logs…..oh yes and will need shredder too !!!!!!! Thanks for that…..
@Paul Watts:
We have the same problem with charity bags. I have filled them three or four times but no one comes to collect them! I now use them in my household bin, turned inside our, instead of black plastic sacks. It may not be good practice but the stuff I would have sent goes to a local charity shop anyway!
@Josie Brock: @Paul Watts:
This topic seems to have turned a bit!
First thing - our shredded paper mostly goes in the compost bin, but our council do take shredded paper at their main bring site. I was told several years ago, that they couldn’t collect it because it potentially caused too much litter on the streets. Having tried to get shredded paper from the shredder to the compost bin without losing any on the way, I can understand that totally! It’s bit like the pine needles from a real christmas tree, you keep finding bits months later
Charity bags! Oh yes! Been there, done that! I even got in touch with one of them to complain after my neighbours decided that they’d all put their bags with mine and I ended up with a huge pile of bags that I had to rescue and find somewhere to stash when it rained all over them, and still they didn’t collect!!
Now we reuse them to take items directly to the charity shops (any bag, any shop!!), or to the skips at the bring sites.
That said, I also know a lady who delivers and collects bags for one of the local charities, and she really works very hard for amount of returns she gets, so they’re not all bad
@Sarah: Hi Sarah; using as packaging for parcels is brilliant. I think LMG is getting a bunny for her birthday, so we’ll be using some as bedding soon too!
@Paul Watts: Hi paul - that’s a LOT of charity bags! We get about 1 every 4 months or so. I would offer them to a friend who uses black bags; they’ll be delighted to be able to save the money, surely?
@Dawn: Thanks for the idea of the starting compost. Have fun with paper making!
@nadine Sellers: Hi Nadine; I’d be interested to see the idea of lining paths working - don’t you just end up with a horrible mess that gets stuck on your shoes and trails into the house??!!
@Angie: Hi Angie, I just got a log maker from Eco Kitchens Online - will be having an experiment with it and writing a review on the site soon!
@Poppy: I can’t begin to imagine the amount of litter it would create - we get it all over the dining room floor when we shred paper too!
Reduce the amount you shred as it is worth less shredded. It is a real pain as much of it is those unsolicited offers of loans with pre-filled personal data. If you look in the small print you can stop a lot of that though including credit card cheques. Bit by bit it reduces.
Make sure you tick the right box when you order anything online - sometimes it is tick when you want info and sometimes it is tick when you don’t!
What you are left with it easier to deal with.
We’re increasingly seeing mashed recycled paper packaging instead of polystyrene.
@Jane: Hi jane, reducing is by the far the best way, yes. And reusing in the form of packaging is a good idea too
Use it to line the food waste bin is the suggestion of one local Council.
Belatedly, answering mrs Green. In order to avoid messy, flying paper shreds all over the garden area and beyond–you must keep paper moist for several days, until trampled on the narrow paths between rows or cubes if you batch garden. the result will be a uniform flat grey area, walkable, untackable and impervious to weeds. spread straw if you fear messes, then, you may have farmer’s hoof n’ track all over your home.
@Jane: Interesting idea - I wonder if that would work Jane. This week I saw a notice on the paper bank at our local recycling centre telling us to put shredded paper in with the cardboard.
@nadine Sellers: Brilliant - thanks for that!
@Mrs Green: Council non-collection may mainly be to avoid shredded paper flying around. Avoiding making much is best but any ways to deal with what you have are a great idea. I think people need to be reminded to re-visit the cutting down on junk mail info. The amount arriving seems to creep up on you!
@Jane: Hi Jane, yes it must be a difficult material to move around, hence the lack of collections. Good point about the junk mail. For me, it is only bank statements or sensitive information that I bother to shred.
I collect it all up for my sister who uses it for bedding for her horse. Then it gets composted!
@Lucy: Fantastic idea, Lucy - I bet the horses love it and the compost benefits too!