Shredder

Do you shred your old documents? Shredding documents that contain personal and financial information such as birth date, bank account numbers, Tax File Numbers, etc., can reduce the chance of Identity Theft.

Neighbourhood Watch Ku-ring-gai & Hornsby has 2 shredders for residents to borrow. They have a maximum of 5 pages and work for short periods of time such as 15 minutes, to avoid over-heating (a normal occurrence in household shredders). If you have a substantial amount of shredding, we recommend you approach a commercial shredding company for help.

Contact us via our Contact menu option for FREE use of a shredder.

Alternatives to shredding

• Physically removing the small portion of a document with identifying information, eg the address, rip it by hand, then put it in the normal rubbish bin. The left-over document can then go in paper recycling as normal.

• Use a thick black pen to write over the personal details.

• Buy an Identity Protection ‘Security Blackout Ink Roller’ type of product to quickly and easily cover large areas of confidential information. An example of such a product can be found on the ID Theft page of the WatchOut.org.au website.
  
• Soak the papers in water, let them dry, then throw them into your paper recycling as normal. PLEASE NOTE: In NSW we cannot throw wet paper into recycling. You must let the papers completely dry out, or the recycling centre machines get clogged.