Alternatives to paper shredding machines include the following: making a new piece of paper, recycling the paper, and burning the paper.
Identity theft is a huge problem due to the rising ability of thieves to obtain important information from unsuspecting victims. Thus, many individuals have been purchasing paper shredders for home and office use. Nonetheless, you do not need to buy these highly-priced gadgets since there are substitutes for keeping your information protected, and which are equally effective, too. Read this article to know some paper shredder substitutes.
Make a new piece of paper
Skip the paper shredding machine but safeguard yourself from identity theft just the same by making a new piece of paper out of your old invoices and other papers that contain your vital data. To do this, begin by cutting the piece of paper into small squares, roughly an inch in size. Then, dip these pieces of paper in hot water for a couple of hours, or maybe even overnight. After which, prepare your food processor or blender and fill half of it with warm water. Then, dump in the soaked scraps of paper into the food processor or blender and turn the mixer on. Do not forget to close the lid so that you don’t splatter tiny pieces of drenched paper all over the area. Blend it until the texture of the paper has turned pulpy, or slurry. Then, pour the mush into a big basin and fill it with water, just enough to let the mush scatter well. Next, get or create a frame from an old and unused picture frame and cover this firmly with a nylon stocking. Put this frame onto the basin and fill it with the pulpy material. Take the frame out of the container with the pulp in it and let it dry. You may also adorn your paper with little flower petals or leaves by mixing these with the mush.
Recycle the paper
You can simply recycle the old scraps of paper that are no longer important. There are several ways that you can recycle paper. For one thing, you can turn them into small notebooks that you can put beside the telephone to jot important messages. You can use them to jot down your grocery list. The ways are endless. To do this, first you need to cut away any important data, such as your social security number, bank account number, and other essential details about you. Carefully destroy these little pieces of paper that you cut away that have your info. Next, cut the remaining part of the pieces of paper into the size that you want. Just make sure that you cut the pieces of paper into the same size for each purpose, so that they will look nice as you pile them together. Then, staple or fasten a paper clip on top of them so they all stay neatly together.
Burn the pieces of paper
You can also simply burn the scraps of paper you no longer need that have important information. During winter season, not only will you be able to stay warm beside a tiny fire, but you will also be properly destroying pieces of paper and safeguarding yourself from identity theft. Remember, though, that scraps of paper burn very easily, and if you’re not careful, you could injure yourself. Just make a small fire and feed the fire one piece of paper at a time so that it will be very easy for you to control the flame until all the scraps of paper are gone.
With just a little imagination and determination, we can continue to keep our family and ourselves protected from identity thieves without purchasing pricey tools. Sometimes, we can even help save our planet by recycling some of our old and unused materials at home.