Safely Disposing of Confidential Information

So you’re having a clear out. One of the main worries you’ve got with all this clearing out, is how do I get rid of the confidential information about me? I don’t want to be the victim of identity theft!

Well it is widely recognised that you use a shredder in order to aid in the destruction of your confidential documents. But this is not enough! It may take a criminal an hour to reconstruct a confidential document, but they can do it; and in this day where more and more information is online, any paper documents are more readily sought after to steal someone’s identity.

So when you’ve shredded the item in question, you may want to consider giving the remains to an animal sanctuary or similar charity based organisation that can use the remains to provide bedding for animals. A majority of the items used for bedding is incinerated to prevent contamination. This also means that your information will be up in smoke with it! And it is practically impossible to recover a document from ashes!

Another way to dispose of your confidential information, which is especially useful to those who have compost piles close to them, and hopefully one that you have created, is to put the shreded remains onto the pile and mix it into the compost pile, as the paper will naturally degrade over a short period of time.

By taking these small additional steps, you are not only helping to protect your information further, but you are also helping the environment, which is something every coconscious person should be attempting to do given the present environmental concerns.