Paper Shredders

What should one consider before making an informed decision?

Firstly, you should carefully review your needs and decide the degree of shredding you need. All shredded documents can be put together with sufficient man-hours invested. The question that arises is how many man hours are actually available. The best paper shredders in the market are not necessarily easy and safe to use. They are intended to make you a hard target.

Shredders can primarily be classified into two categories - strip cut and cross cut. Strip cut paper shredders are a lot more economical and are easier to put together. However, they take up a lot more space. On the other hand, the cross cut paper shredders are the best there are although they are little more expensive. They require constant maintenance but cross cut shredders are bound to meet any standards that may arise to preserve secrets by shredding paper.

Secondly, you should consider the capacity. This implies that you should estimate the number of sheets you would need to destroy daily. In addition, how many sheets at one time and how much capacity is available for trash should also be considered. These factors will help you to determine if you need a personal shredder or a commercial shredder. A personal shredder can manage anywhere between 100-150 pages per day with 5 pages at a time. These would require a trash bag that would be available in a standard trash can.

Certain other features should also be kept in mind. Some available shredders are meant to fit over standard trash bind while some others have built-in containers. The latter ones are more expensive but are certainly easier to empty and clean. The best paper shredders are those that are capable of destroying more than just paper - they should be able to shred CDs, DVDs, floppy disks, credit cards and staples as well.

If you identify that your needs of a shredder are limited to personal security and identity theft protection, you should go for a cheap and reliable shredder. On the other hand, if your use is concerning proprietary and business information, there are a variety of paper shredders to choose from.