Shredders

Paper Shredders

A shredder is how a business disposes of personal information without leaving it recoverable. NXP stocks 17 shredders from Rexel and Fellowes, split between manual feed and automatic feed machines, in cross cut, micro cut and mini cut.

Cut type is the security decision

How finely a shredder cuts determines how hard the output is to reassemble, and the international standard for this is DIN 66399, which grades paper shredders from P-1 to P-7.

• Strip cut cuts long ribbons. It is fast and cheap, and it sits at the bottom of the scale. Adequate for junk mail, not for anything with a name on it.
• Cross cut cuts in two directions, producing small rectangular particles. This is the practical office standard and covers most general business use — correspondence, invoices, internal documents.
• Micro cut reduces paper to particles many times smaller again. This is what you want for personnel files, client records, medical and financial information, and anything whose exposure would actually matter.

Check the P-rating on the specific model rather than relying on the category name, because the ranges overlap. If you are deciding where to draw the line, a workable rule is: cross cut for the general office bin, micro cut for HR, finance and anywhere client records are handled.

What the Privacy Act expects

Under the Privacy Act 2020, an agency holding personal information must protect it against loss and misuse by such security safeguards as are reasonable in the circumstances, and must dispose of it securely once it is no longer needed.

The Act does not name a shredder or specify a particle size, so the test is proportionality: the more sensitive the information, the finer the destruction expected. A recycling bin full of intact client records is very difficult to defend after a breach; a micro cut shredder beside the HR desk is not an expensive control by comparison.

The practical failure is rarely the machine. It is the pile of paper waiting beside it, or a shredder so slow that people give up and use the paper recycling instead. Whatever you buy has to be quick enough that using it stays the path of least resistance.

Manual feed or autofeed: this is the one that changes behaviour

Manual feed shredders take sheets fed in by hand, a few at a time. They cost less and suit low volumes — a desk-side machine for one person, or a small office shredding a handful of pages a day.

Autofeed shredders take a stack of paper into a closed hopper, and shred it unattended while you walk away. For any office shredding regularly, this is the difference between a two-minute task and twenty minutes standing at a machine. It also removes the reason people stockpile paper rather than dealing with it.

The autofeed capacity quoted — 50, 100, 150 or 225 sheets in the Rexel Optimum range, 90 or 100 in the Fellowes AutoMax — is the hopper size, not a daily limit. Choose it against how much paper accumulates between visits, rather than how much you shred in a year.

Sheet capacity, run time and why shredders stop

Two figures decide whether a shredder frustrates people, and only one of them is usually advertised.

Sheet capacity is how many sheets it will take at once on manual feed. Exceeding it is the most common cause of jams. Note that folded pages count double and stapled sets count as their number of sheets.

Run time and cool-down is the one to check before buying. A small shredder may run for two or three minutes and then need twenty or thirty minutes to cool. If a machine rated that way is put in a busy office, it will spend most of the day unavailable and staff will stop using it. A larger machine with a longer continuous run time is the fix, and it is worth spending on.

Bin size, and what else it will shred

Bin capacity in litres determines how often somebody has to empty it. Under-sizing here is a slow, recurring irritation rather than a dramatic failure: a small bin in a busy office fills daily, and an overfull bin is what causes the next jam. Bigger bins also suit shredder bags, which make emptying cleaner.

Many office shredders also handle staples, paper clips, credit cards and CDs, but not all of them, and running the wrong material through will damage the cutters. Check the specification for the model you are buying rather than assuming, particularly for cards and discs.

Finally, shredders need oiling. Cross cut and micro cut cutters dull and seize without lubrication, and a shredder that is jamming constantly is very often simply dry rather than broken. Lubricant sheets are the tidiest way to do it and take seconds.

Sizing it to the office

Match the machine to the number of people who will use it and how often, not to the volume of your worst week.

• One person, occasional use — a compact manual feed cross cut machine at the desk.
• A small team, daily use — a mid-size manual or a small autofeed, with a bin that lasts the week.
• A department or a floor — autofeed with a large hopper and a long run time, sited centrally.
• HR, finance or client records — micro cut regardless of volume, and ideally a dedicated machine rather than a shared one.

For documents being kept rather than destroyed, document storage covers archive boxes and files.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between cross cut and micro cut shredding?

Cross cut produces small rectangular particles and is the general office standard. Micro cut reduces paper to particles many times smaller, which is what you want for personnel files, client records and financial information. Both are graded under DIN 66399, so check the P-rating on the model rather than the label alone.

What does the Privacy Act require for shredding documents?

The Privacy Act 2020 requires reasonable security safeguards over personal information and secure disposal once it is no longer needed. It does not specify a particle size, so the expectation scales with sensitivity: general correspondence is fine cross cut, while client and personnel records warrant micro cut.

Is an autofeed shredder worth the extra cost?

For any office shredding regularly, yes. You load a stack into the hopper and walk away instead of standing at the machine feeding sheets. That difference is usually what determines whether documents get shredded promptly or pile up beside the machine for a month.

Why does my shredder keep stopping?

Usually one of three things: it has exceeded its continuous run time and is cooling down, it has been overfed past its sheet capacity, or the cutters are dry and need oiling. A shredder that jams constantly is far more often under-lubricated than faulty.

How many sheets can a shredder take at once?

It varies by model, and the rated capacity assumes flat, unstapled sheets. Folded pages count double, and a stapled set counts as its full number of sheets. Feeding above the rating is the most common cause of jams.

Can shredders handle staples and credit cards?

Many office shredders take staples, paper clips, credit cards and CDs, but not all, and using the wrong material will damage the cutters. Check the specification for the specific model, particularly before shredding cards or discs.