Shredded Paper.

I’m in County Durham and just looked at the website. It’s as clear as mud! After DH died I shredded for England as he’d kept ‘stuff’ for years and I put it into the recycling bin. Our collectors are quick to let you know if you’ve done something wrong, but I heard nothing. Now, I still shred stuff occasionally and have an inked roller thing to obliterate personal details on envelopes and I continue to put it in the recycling bin. We have a separate green box for glass.

chocolatepudding

I bag up our shredded paper and take it to a local hedgehog rescue centre where it is used as bedding , perhaps there is a centre near you?

What a great idea. I've just emailed our local animal sanctuary to ask if they could use shredded paper.

We are told to put shreddings in a clear plastic bag and place on top of the recycling bin so that's what I do. However, the bin men just throw the bag into the bin before taking it to the lorry.

I have a lot of shredded paper but don't do it very often, so I have a big clear plastic bag the same size as a bin bag. The shreddings are very fine like confetti so I always dread the bag coming open and the mess going everywhere! Goodness knows what they do with it if it comes open in the bin lorry which I think it might.

We checked on this with the recycling centre. Were told that shredded paper can go into paper and card recycling bin. The main problem is that if it is loose then it can start to blow about as they take these bins to lorry.

Recycling rules are so difficult - in our flats we distributed the official well laid out information sheet to all our flats, but still find people put things like crisp packets in with paper, do not understand that blister packs have to go into general rubbish (mixed materials),

We don't shred much but we empty the full shredder every so often, straight into in the compost bin. There have never been any apparent problems for the garden.

Our council specifies shredded paper is to be placed in the recycling bin

I don't shred glossy paper and take the plastic windows off envelopes before putting them in the paper recycling bin (although we don't need to do that here). Shredded paper goes in the compost bin with the grass clippings. Some of it is used as a top layer for the wormery, particularly if it is wet weather. Glossy paper and things with names and addresses make kindler rolls for the fire.

I bag up our shredded paper and take it to a local hedgehog rescue centre where it is used as bedding , perhaps there is a centre near you?

Following on from my OP, we are soon to get another bin for ‘clean paper and cardboard’, so will see what new instructions come for that.

We have no glass recycling bin at present, have to take it to a bottle bank, but that is changing as well, so will be interesting to see where everything then is to be put.

Thanks for this reminder Calendargirl
I no longer shred paper at all. Sensitive information comes paperless these days.
If I don't want letters with my address to go into the recycle bin I compost that paper but I tear it rather than shred.

Our council boasts that nothing goes to landfill. I scoffed until I heard from my electrician, who also works on the huge incinerator, that it is true and everything in the general waste, including shredded paper, gets burned and turned into energy. a giant magnet removes metal
www.fccenvironment.co.uk/green-energy/millerhill-rerc/

So there is no need to feel guilty putting shredded paper into the general waste.

A local band wrote and performed a song called "let's recycle"
Available on YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a01x9PXN5dI

Shredded paper goes loose in our recycle bin.

Interesting posts. We don't shred anything (no shredder, never felt the need, just do a rip or two), so fortunately I don't need to feel guilty about putting shredded paper in the wrong bin.

Happens at work though so I'll investigate but the bottom line is that better sorting machines need to be invented that shred everything themselves.

I think we (our local councils) should be "dealing with" all the waste its inhabitants and businesses generate rather than sending it abroad..... although.... if sending it abroad means that businesses (and ultimately people working at them) are benefiting.....

It's a bit like the cheap clothing problem. Years ago when Laura Ashley shops (after she died) starting out-sourcing their clothing manufacture to China, a friend said she would stop buying their stuff because the Chinese workers would not be being paid a decent wage or have decent working conditions. Trouble is, they probably didn't have a decent wage or decent working conditions before – witness China's vast growth in GDP over the last couple of decades. Same as here in the industrial revolution.

Nothing's simply black and white, good or bad. Sigh.

People round here put all sorts of wrong things in their recycling bins. I often see black bin bags bulging out of some while they're waiting for collection. It's as if people either just don't get it or don't care.

I keep a cardboard box (stowed under an easy chair) into which I put shredded paper. When it is full, I tape it shut with masking tape, not duck tape as that is plastic. The shreds are confined inside the sealed box. I label it "SHREDDED PAPER" with a black marker pen, in very large letters, then either put it in the recycling bin or leave it alongside on bin day. The bin men always take it away.

Ours goes into the compost bin here, or I have used it to line a trench before sowing beans so they have a moisture-retentive layer.
Council advice is to put it into the main bin, or it can go into paper-recycling bins at the tip.

Casdon

It must be different everywhere, I’ve just checked our recycling rules and we are to put shredded paper in our paper and card recycling bin. It does have to be in an envelope as there’s a risk of it clogging the machinery otherwise.
They also take it at our recycling centre.

There's the answer, maybe. You have a separate bin for card and paper so there'd be little problem with sorting it..
I assume that OP has a bin like ours that we put everything in apart from glass. I understand our recycling is actually hand sorted (not a job I would fancy) That would make shredded paper very difficult to sort.

Everywhere is indeed different.

I put ours in the compost heap or the stable muck heap.

Thanks for that Calendargirl.I did not know.

It must be different everywhere, I’ve just checked our recycling rules and we are to put shredded paper in our paper and card recycling bin. It does have to be in an envelope as there’s a risk of it clogging the machinery otherwise.
They also take it at our recycling centre.

No, though it does seem counter-intuitive, shredded paper goes in the main bin here.

I do put mine in the compost bin and have had great results. It's mixed in with the grass cuttings and soft green stuff. The dryness of the paper seems to absorb surplus moisture from the latter. Mixing things together is the important thing or you will likely get a layer of un-decomposed paper. I guess it all depends on the right balance of green stuff to paper as well.

Shredded waste paper apparently causes huge problems at the sorting stages of all the recycling waste. We have never put ours into the recycle bin but wouldn't want that amount of paper in the compost either although a small amount of non-glossy paper is good for compost seemingly.

We put empty toilet roll 'inners' in the compost bin, but we do. rip them up into smaller pieces first. We also have a small compost bucket in the kitchen for veggie peelings and apple cores etc which I always line with a sheet of paper kitchen towel, the whole lot, including the kitchen towel goes into the compost bin.

I take ours to the recycling site where it can go with all the other paper for recycling