| Paper shredders are used to cut paper into | | | | box is divided into two sections: the |
| very fine strips or tiny paper chips. | | | | shredding equipment area, and the payload |
| Government organizations, businesses, and | | | | area for storage of the shredded materials. |
| private individuals use shredders to destroy | | | | These trucks have been designed to shred up |
| private, confidential, or sensitive | | | | to 5,000 lbs of paper an hour. Mobile |
| documents. Privacy experts often recommend | | | | shredding trucks can have a shredded material |
| that individuals shred bills, credit card and | | | | storage capacity of 6,000 to 15,000 pounds of |
| bank account statements, and other documents | | | | shredded paper. Office paper is the typical |
| that could be used by thieves to commit fraud | | | | material being shredded, but with increasing |
| or identity theft. | | | | security concerns customers also request |
| | | | shredding of CDs, DVDs, hard drives, credit |
| After the Supreme Court decision in | | | | cards, uniforms, among other things. |
| California v. Greenwood, in which the Supreme | | | | |
| Court of the United States held that the | | | | Shredding services |
| Fourth Amendment does not prohibit the | | | | |
| warrantless search and seizure of garbage | | | | Due to information privacy laws like FACTA |
| left for collection outside of a home, paper | | | | and HIPAA, the volume of shredding at the |
| shredders became more popular among US | | | | typical business has increased dramatically. |
| citizens with privacy concerns. | | | | To reduce costs many companies outsource |
| | | | their shredding to shredding services. These |
| Types of shredders | | | | companies either shred on-site, usually with |
| | | | mobile shredder trucks, or off-site. All |
| Shredders range in size and price from small | | | | shredded paper is then sent to a paper mill. |
| and inexpensive units meant for a few pages, | | | | |
| to large units used by commercial shredding | | | | Unshredding |
| services that costs hundreds of thousands of | | | | |
| dollars and can shred thousands of pounds an | | | | In some cases, it may be possible to |
| hour. Some shredders used by commercial | | | | reassemble the pieces of shredded documents. |
| shredding service are built into a shredding | | | | If the shreds are not disturbed, the |
| truck. | | | | "noodles" or particles that belonged to the |
| | | | same document tend to stay close to each |
| These machines are classified according to | | | | other. Furthermore, when the documents are |
| the size and shape of the waste they produce. | | | | fed to the shredder in a way that the lines |
| The shred waste that remain of the documents | | | | of text are not perpendicular to the shredder |
| fed through a paper shredder are called | | | | blades, portions of text may remain legible |
| chads. | | | | on the stripes. |
| | | | |
| Strip-cut shredders use rotating knives to | | | | Shredded documents can be reassembled |
| cut narrow strips as long as the original | | | | manually. After the Iranian Revolution and |
| sheet of paper. These strips can be | | | | the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in |
| reassembled by a determined investigator, so | | | | 1979, Iranians enlisted local carpet weavers |
| this type of shredder is the least secure. It | | | | who reconstructed the pieces by hand. The |
| also creates the highest volume of waste. | | | | recovered documents would be later released |
| | | | by the Iranian regime in a series of books |
| Cross-cut or confetti-cut shredders use two | | | | called "Documents from the US espionage Den". |
| contra-rotating drums to cut rectangular, | | | | The US government subsequently improved its |
| parallelogram, or diamond-shaped shreds. | | | | shredding techniques, by adding pulverizing, |
| | | | pulping, and chemical decomposition. |
| Particle-cut shredders create tiny square or | | | | |
| circular pieces. | | | | Modern computer technology considerably |
| | | | speeds up the process of reassembling |
| Disintegrators and granulators repeatedly cut | | | | shredded documents. The strips are scanned on |
| the paper at random until the particles are | | | | both sides, and then the computer determines |
| small enough to pass through a mesh. | | | | how the strips should be put together. Robert |
| | | | Johnson of the National Association for |
| Hammermills pound the paper through a screen. | | | | Information Destruction, has stated that |
| | | | there is a huge demand for document |
| | | | reconstruction. Several companies offer |
| Pierce and Tear Rotating blades pierce the | | | | commercial document reconstruction services. |
| paper and then tear it apart. | | | | For maximum security, documents should be |
| | | | shredded so that the words of the document go |
| Grinders A rotating shaft with cutting blades | | | | through the shredder horizontally (i.e. |
| grinds the paper until it is small enough to | | | | perpendicular to the blades). Many of the |
| fall through a screen. | | | | documents in the Enron accountancy scandal |
| | | | were fed through the shredder the wrong way, |
| There are numerous standards for the security | | | | making them easier to reassemble. |
| levels of paper shredders, including: | | | | |
| | | | There is an effort underway to recovery the |
| DIN 32757 | | | | shredded archives of the Stasi, the East |
| | | | German secret police. There are "millions of |
| Level 1 = 12 mm strips | | | | shreds of paper that panicked Stasi officials |
| | | | threw into garbage bags during the regime's |
| Level 2 = 6 mm strips | | | | final days in the fall of 1989". It took |
| | | | three dozen people six years to reconstruct |
| Level 3 = 2 mm strips (Confidential) | | | | 300 of the 16,000 bags so the German |
| | | | government is looking at modern computerized |
| Level 4 = 2 x 15 mm particles (Commercially | | | | methods of reconstruction. |
| Sensitive) | | | | |
| | | | Forensic identification |
| Level 5 = 0.8 x 12 mm particles (Top Secret | | | | |
| or Classified) | | | | Document shredders display certain |
| | | | device-specific characteristics, |
| Level 6 = 0.8 x 4 mm particles (Top Secret or | | | | "fingerprints", like the exact spacing of the |
| Classified) | | | | blades, the degree and pattern of their wear. |
| | | | These can be reconstructed from the minute |
| United States Department of Defense (DoD) | | | | variations of size of the paper strips and |
| | | | the microscopic marks on their edges, and by |
| Top Secret = 0.8 x 11.1 mm (1/32" × 7 | | | | comparison with the strips produced by known |
| 16") | | | | shredders, the individual shredder that was |
| | | | used to destroy a given document may be |
| United States NSA/CSS 02-01 = 1 × 4 mm | | | | determined. Jack Brassil, a researcher for |
| | | | Hewlett-Packard, works on a project for |
| Historically, the US General Services | | | | making shredders more easily traceable. (Cf. |
| Administration (GSA) set paper shredder | | | | the forensic identification of typewriters.) |
| guidance in the Interim Federal Specification | | | | |
| FF-S-001169 dated 7/1971 which was superseded | | | | Injury risk with residential shredders |
| by standard A-A-2599 for classified material | | | | |
| which was cancelled in 2/2000. GSA has not | | | | As with any motorized cutting equipment, |
| published a new standard since. | | | | there is a risk of injury. Small residential |
| | | | shredders are becoming more and more common. |
| There are also alternative shredders that use | | | | These shredders, although designed with a |
| burning, chemical decomposition, or | | | | narrow opening to the cutting wheels, still |
| composting for disposing of the shreds. | | | | pose a danger to pets and small children. |
| | | | Many home shredders can be left in a |
| Shredder trucks | | | | "stand-by" mode that will start the cutting |
| | | | process when anything is inserted into the |
| A mobile shredding truck is a box truck with | | | | feed slot. In homes with small children or |
| an industrial sized paper shredder mounted | | | | pets, simply keeping the shredder unplugged |
| inside the box, typically in the front | | | | while not in use can greatly reduce any risk |
| section of the box, closest to the cab. The | | | | |