How to properly dispose of sensitive documents without a shredding machine?

Turns out that the office never had a shredder due to noise concerns and we seldom have work documents that demand such treatment.

Noise is an excuse, not the actual reason.

Shredders aren't all that noisy, and could easily be operated after hours or in a utility closet where nobody would be disturbed.

Most likely, they simply didn't want to spend the money. Perhaps they were just being frugal, or perhaps they were misguided.

But one day the unexpected happened, and we had to literally burn the stuff up in the toilet (with care, of course).

Burning would work.

Of course, if you set off the smoke alarm it will be far more noisy than a shredder. And if you burn the building down you would have to work outside and listen to traffic going by - that could be noisy too.

How do others deal with such a situation?

I worked at an 8-person startup. When we collected paper that needed to be shredded, the CEO took it home and shredded it there. You could take it anywhere a shredder is available (an office-services shop, home, whatever) and get it shredded pretty easily.

The usual solution is to hire a professional disposal contractor to turn up with a shredding truck, and not only shred all the records while you watch if necessary, but provide a signed log evidencing that (which can be essential for certain types of documentation.)

In an emergency your solution works, but is not as safe or clean. If you have a wood fired boiler at work that can be a better option, or as more and more companies go 'green' many are installing biomass converters which can cope with paper along with other organics.

You didn't have to burn stuff in the toilet. Actually, burning stuff in the toilet is beyond reckless. Think: What's the worst that can happen? The worst is your office building on fire. If you need to destroy paper, and you don't have a shredder, you buy a shredder.

Unless you are in the deepest Australian outback, it shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes to buy a shredder and return to the office with it.

If shredding is something you don't do very often, the shredding jobs are not too big when you get them, and you don't need cross cut shredding, then you might consider a hand operated shredder. I have one for home use and, in my experience, it is easy to operate and doesn't make nearly as much noise as an electromechanical shredder. On the other hand, I have found that I must be careful to avoid shredding too many sheets at once - two or three sheets thick is about the maximum mine will take. So, sound-wise, the noise you make won't be as loud, but will last longer. Amazon has one similar to mine for $13 at this link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004IAF544/

I can't believe nobody has mentioned scissors yet! Yes, it might take a while to shred paper to the extent that a paper shredder would, but it is free, and safer than starting a fire in your toilet (as long as you watch your fingers!)

Or, if your office won't spring for a shredder, maybe they can at least justify purchasing a pair of shredder scissors for the rare cases that they are needed:

Also, whenever I chop up old credit cards by hand, I always throw the pieces away into several different trash cans. I figure this greatly reduces the chances that someone will be able to find all the pieces and put it back together.

You're heard "buy a shredder". Buy one. Good ones are not as noisy as you think, I have one I blagged off ebay and while it would make a noise that would disturb someone if they were working, you'd have to really go shred a thousand pages, one at a time, before they set on you. Besides, you can put it out of the way or use it out of hours.

Bear in mind that burning can be not as reliable as you think: if you are not taking care to burn each page slowly, and try to burn a lot of pages at once in a metal can, you will find that much of the paper does not burn away - it will float away in the hot thermal draughts, it will leave behind half-burned pages.

But the best way to get rid of paper is water. Water will easily turn a book into a pulpy mass of fibres given a bit of time and some stirring. This is probably the best approach, particularly if you've shredded the pages first (or even just torn them into strips). Put them in a bucket and wait for them to fall apart. Bonus if you make new paper out of the mulch!

Since funds are scarce, you can have a bake sale or maybe a 50/50 lottery where the proceeds go to a paper shredder. Run it at night or first thing in the morning before the quiet hours start.

If this is a one-time or very rare need, and the amount of paper is modest, I'd just drop them in a metal trash can and burn them. A small enough number of pages at a time that the flames stay contained within the trash can. That's a more thorough destruction than a shredder anyway -- determined people have managed to re-assemble shredded pages.

Frankly, though, I think I'd just buy a paper shredder. You can get a cheap one at any office supply store for like $30.

Many stores like office supply or shipping stores offer shredding services for smaller jobs like yours sounded like on a walk in basis.

Just ensure that the documents are properly secured when you leave the office and take them straight to the shredding location.

Some good answers already, but all take time. Not great when the SWAT team are trying to bust through the door and the secretary and CEO are trying to hold it closed and wedge a chair under the handle while the wood around the lock is starting to splinter. And the helicopters are making a racket outside making it hard to concentrate. The VP has soiled himself and is running around like the end of the World has come etc,.

For small and rare occasions, burning the documents in anything metal or ceramic is a reasonable thing to do if you're pressed for time. Use common sense in terms of fire safety. Flush or crush the ashes.

If all other logistics do not pose an issue (e.g. moving the documents, keeping them contained in a public area, etc.) and depending on your area, you may be able to find "community shred" events. They are free and occur pretty regularly in larger or "greener" areas.

what method you choose may depend on how sensitive the documents are. when i was in the military, there were documents that required shredding, and they use a cross-cut shredder that makes little bits of paper instead of strips (yes, people have taken the time to glue the strips together to read a shredded document). when we were in the field, we didn't have a shredder, so we burned the documents in a hole in the ground, and poured water in and stirred the ashes (yes again, some enterprising individual somewhere reconstructed secret documents from ashes that were undisturbed after burning). the crypto facility we got our equipment repaired at actually did both with the documents they handled, crosscut shredding, then burned the confetti... these days, i would treat any sensitive documents (including customer identity and credit card information) with at least crosscut shredding, and not just shredding the document itself, but sandwich the document with other printed pages, printed on the same kind of paper. it may sound wasteful, but you are protecting customer data, and the cost of leaked customer data could be gigantic.

You could just crumple up a few sheets at a time and drop them right in the toilet, wait a little while for the paper to soften, then flush them down.

Skip the fire & smoke, and resulting danger of injury & damage, no risk of burning anyone or anything. The worst that could happen is calling the building maintenance to un-clog the toilet - so don't overload it, a few extra flushes is even cheaper than buying a real shredder.

Several answers on this similar Q on the Lifehacks stackexchange How to shred papers/letters without using a shredder machine suggest the same idea using a bucket of water, possibly adding salt or vinegar, and using a paint mixer (or egg beaters) to really liquify the paper. That would be even more secure than a regular shredder's pieces that could conceivably still be read. But I think sewer pipes are equally "secure."

Actually, regular paper shredders may not be as safe as generally assumed, not just from a Mission Impossible movie reconstrucing some shredded documents. See:

• "All Your Shreds Are Belong To U.S." successfully reconstructed and solved all 5 Puzzles earning $50,000!
• $50K Shredded Document Challenge Solved
• "Back from the shred: 'Jigsaw puzzle' challenges users to rebuild shredded documents - with frightening success"

_{* You may want to think twice about working somewhere that can't even afford a cheap shredder, and thinks it's OK to have employees starting fires in bathrooms.}