How to Get Rid of Confidential Papers Without a Shredder (2024)

Businesses and homes build up stacks of documents containing sensitive information that eventually need destroying. It could be old bank statements, invoices, CVs, and anything else with personal data. They must be disposed of responsibly to protect the individuals and businesses whose private information they contain – they can’t be recycled with paper.

Shredding confidential papers is an easy and efficient way to destroy sensitive documents and data. However, not every business and household owns a shredder. You might not have the space, money, or need to use a shredder regularly enough to justify buying one. There are other ways to destroy important documents without a shredder though.

Find out how to get rid of confidential papers without a shredder in your business or at home with this guide.

Soaking paper documents in water for one or two days and mixing it around is an effective way to make them unreadable. This dissolves the paper into a pulp that you can break up by hand. However, you’ll need the space and patience to leave your documents in buckets of water in a secure place.

You can speed up the paper pulping process by adding bleach to the water. Ensure you use a container that can withstand bleach and wear protective gloves. The bleach destroys the colourants within the ink to leave little traces behind. Then drain the water and bleach safely to avoid it affecting the environment.

Leave the pulp to dry in the sun before disposing of it with your general waste, as unfortunately, it won’t be recyclable. If you only used water and no bleach then the wet pup could be used as mulch on a garden and possibly sent for composting.

Incinerating paper isn’t advised as it releases dangerous fumes that add to air pollution and are toxic for humans and animals to inhale. However, it’s a possible solution to destroy sensitive documents without a shredder when done in a controlled and responsible manner. Using a proper paper incinerator bin is best.

First, check that fires are allowed in the area where you intend to burn your confidential papers. Tear each paper into smaller pieces first to avoid large bits flying away. Feed the paper into the fire a little bit at a time to keep it under control, with water nearby for safety.

Once all the private papers are burned put the fire out carefully. Break up the ashes safely and check no readable bits of information remain. When the ashes are dry you should dispose of them in your general waste bin.

Cutting up confidential documents with scissors or tearing them by hand is a cheap and easy way to destroy important papers without a shredder. You can also use a hole punch to make printed words and numbers unreadable, such as bank account numbers and addresses. Depending on the size, you might be able to recycle this paper too.

However, it’s a time-consuming task depending on how many documents you need to destroy and the size of your team. It’s not always the most secure way to get rid of confidential data either, as if the papers aren’t torn or cut up small enough then potential thieves could stick them back together.

Many professional shredding services can destroy confidential documents safely and securely for your business. At Business Waste, we can collect all types and amounts of confidential waste anywhere in the UK. We can then arrange on-site or off-site confidential waste destruction.

This way your sensitive paper documents are shredded and disposed of in an environmentally friendly way that also protects the information they contain. You receive a Certificate of Destruction for added peace of mind.

If you want to shred your confidential documents but don’t own a shredder there are various alternatives. Shredding important papers into smaller pieces can make it harder for any information or data from them to be stolen. It’s also much more environmentally friendly than burning paper or using chemicals such as bleach to destroy them.

Consider an alternative to a paper shredder with these methods:

• Scissors – manually shredding paper with scissors is a simple and effective solution. It can take a while and be labour-intensive, depending on how many sheets you need to shred. Speed up the process with shears or multi-blade scissors.
• Tearing – simply tearing up your confidential papers by hand is a cheap and easy way to destroy them. You’ll need to ensure they’re split into incredibly thin pieces so the information can’t be stuck back together though.
• Hole punch – if you’ve got paper documents that only contain a few bits of sensitive information then using a hole punch on these sections is an effective method. This can remove private data and make it hard to read. You can dispose of it separately from the rest of the document for added security.

You can destroy paper documents in a washing machine. Water turns paper into a pulp and the added spins and force of the machine make the writing unreadable. However, you should put the paper documents in a laundry bag or stocking and tie the top tightly to avoid ending up with a mess.

Once the spin cycle is over just open the bag to check the documents are destroyed and dispose of them with your general waste. You can only destroy regular paper documents in a washing machine, it won’t work for laminated paper or some types of glossy paper.