However, that is only feasible when you don’t have tons of documents to dispose of. What else can you do to destroy your documents?Īlternatively, you can cut up the documents into small pieces manually or with a paper shredder. If you want to use the dried pulp as mulch for your garden, don’t go the bleach route. Since you can’t put the pulp in your garbage wet, allow it to dry in the sun. Use a broomstick to break apart the pieces of paper, churning them, making it impossible for the original documents to be assembled from the resulting mess. But if you don’t have a mixer, don’t worry. You can then use an electric mixer to blend the softened, wet paper into a soft mash. 24 hours should be enough to disintegrate the paper, making it easier to pulp it.
At all costs, avoid touching the solution with your bare hands.
If you don’t have gloves, use a broom stick to force the documents to submerge in the solution. But if you find that you can’t accommodate all your documents in one go, you can organize them into batches and do them one batch at a time. If some of the documents are above the liquid surface, push them down to ensure they are thoroughly saturated in the solution. Next, pour 19L of water (five gallons) into the bucket. If serious, call poison control or see a doctor. If you happen to ingest the bleach solution, drink a glass of milk or water. And no matter what anyone tells you, don’t use acids like hydrochloric acid. Ammonia, a compound used in toilet bowl cleaners, is certainly a no-no. A combination of bleach with other chemicals may end up producing toxic flames. And wear pants, long-sleeved shirts, and shoes that cover every inch of your feet.Ī word of caution: never mix bleach with anything other than water. Protect yourself with a pair of gloves and eye cover. And don’t ingest any of it, so wash your hands well after you are through.
Shred documents skin#
Take care that it doesn’t spill on your skin or eyes. Bleach is great because, in addition to acting on the paper itself, it will also destroy the colorants within the ink, ensuring total destruction. Get some bleach, and pour 2L in the container. Since you are using 21L of water and bleach solution, the container should be much bigger than that to give you enough room for churning.
The container’s material should also be robust enough to withstand contact with bleach – most plastic trashcans will do the job just fine. The container needs to be this big to accommodate all the documents you want to destroy. Look for a plastic container which can hold more than 5 gallons or 21 liters of liquid. You could also stomp on it hard to force it into a hard slab which you can discard in the trash without any fear.īut more effective than water alone is a mixture of water and bleach. It will be easy for you to tear this pulp manually. If you soak your documents in water, giving them one or two days, the paper will gradually dissolve into a soggy pulp. Water is surprisingly effective at rendering confidential documents unreadable. You could also burn the documents.īut what if you can’t burn or shred them? What can you do to get rid of confidential papers when burning and shredding are out of the question? Pulping What do you do with documents like your bank statements or tax forms which you don’t want strangers to see? Do you let them just accumulate? The easiest thing you can do in your situation is to get yourself a paper shredder.
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