Security

I have been using a paper shredder to dispose of bank statements and credit card bills that no longer have to be kept.  Also junk mail, pleas for donations,  and solicitations to apply for new credit cards and mortgage loans. Who knows what problems such papers might cause us if they end up in the wrong hands. Identity theft is a foremost concern these days.

A paper shredder is a useful machine to have in the house.  It gives a sense of security.  Not a great one; just one that makes you feel you are doing something right.  It's like a very modest version of homeland security.  

Our shredder shreds paper in ribbons about a quarter-inch wide.  In movies, criminal investigators and spymasters take these shreds and piece them together so that what's on them can be read.  A painstaking job that may take days or weeks of effort is in the movie compressed into a brief montage of a second or two.  Those movie investigators are so skilled, you see.

The paper shredder is about the size of a plastic office waste-paper basket.  The shredding mechanism, a sort of spiked or toothed and geared cylinder, is contained in the heavy top portion of the unit, and is turned on and off by a button, while another button puts the thing into reverse, in case there's a paper jam.  An electric eye in the paper-feeding slot detects when a sheet, or sheets, is placed there, and electronically triggers the shredder's mechanism to get going.

Depending on the quality and price of the shredder, a user can shred as many as a dozen or so sheets at a time.  Inserting too many sheets can jam the rollers. Likewise, inserting too many gummed labels (the address labels on sheets that charities often send when requesting donations) will also do a fine job of clogging the mechanism.  

Though most paper-shredders will do the job for which they were designed, eventually the bits and pieces of scrunched-up paper debris that stick on to the rollers will have to be removed.  Always remember to unplug the unit from the wall outlet, if you don't want a finger to end up in anyone's bowl of chili.