Reader Story: 25 Bags Of Shredded Paper

Jay Shredder One of my favourite things is hearing from you about your going paperless projects.

Awesome DocumentSnap reader Jay in Phoenix went above and beyond the call of duty and shared pictures of the aftermath of his. Here’s what he wrote:

So I’m trying to scan all of my boxed up papers from WAY back. One box at a time baby. Using ScanSnap, Neat for Mac[1], and Evernote. Backing up with Crashplan and a local external WD hard drive and shredding with a Fellowes paper shredder. I kinda ran out of steam late in the year but I’m back on it until I get ’em all and I’m only scanning current documents. Thanks for your help man! Here’s some pics of the 25 garbage bags full of shredded documents.

Awesome job Jay! I like the one box at a time approach. Sometimes these projects can seem overwhelming, but if you keep plugging away it’s surprising how much one can accomplish. Love it.

Neat used to sell their Mac software standalone, but it doesn’t seem like they do anymore. Weird. ↩

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About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 5 comments

Barry J Sullivan - September 1, 2016 Reply

Here is a link to more information about recycling shredded paper.

https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/because-you-asked-how-do-i-recycle-shredded-paper?utm_source=recyclebank&utm_medium=email&utm_term=20160831_Marketing_BYA&utm_content=recyclebank&utm_campaign=collections

Chris - January 20, 2015 Reply

Why is he throwing all of them out and not recycling the paper??

Brooks Duncan - January 20, 2015 Reply

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to say that! Answer: 3.5 hours. 🙂

Donald Poyner - January 21, 2015 Reply

Here in Mississauga, Ontario, once paper has been shredded it can no longer be recycled. The only choice we have is compost or garbage.

Barry J Sullivan - August 27, 2016 Reply

From my research I learned shredded paper can’t be recycled because the recycle process needs long fibers of paper and not shredded ones. I also read that the shredded paper can clog up machinery in the early sorting process.