Dear LPG, 

I think that the older we get the more paper we accumulate through each morning’s front door post-delivery.  The minute you retire it seems as if you start getting those catalogues and charity appeal letters and they just multiply week by week.  I think that those potential scammers have worked out that we have more time to browse, and you just have to send a couple of orders before the books start to make regular appearances at your front door. 

Once it takes hold the battle is lost even if you are not particularly interested in what is inside the catalogues that keep coming, and your name and address are usually splattered all over them making them an increasingly large part of the personal paperwork that contributes to your identity theft risk. 

The next question has to be, ‘Who on earth would be interested in the rubbish in my bin anyway?’.  If you think about it your name, address and even the reference number for that particular catalogue is all there and presents yet another opportunity to make a scam telephone call or letter more credible.

By now most of us have invested in a paper-spaghetti making shredder, although with patience I have always thought that those little strips of paper can be pieced together again, and now there is the cross shredder which leaves us with little diamonds which might put people off puzzle-sorting a bit more. But the internet also tells that burning paper has its repercussions on the ozone layer and I also read that those little paper diamonds are much more difficult to recycle because of all the shorter chopped up fibres.  

I have seen lots of information on incinerating and soaking it with bleach but, if you are the sort of person who is happy to tackle this particular problem with a ‘little and often’ approach, I found this way of making sure those personal details might be lost forever and thought I should share it, although I suggest that you are selective about which coloured clothes you add to that particular batch of washing.  

JS, Deptford 

JS shares what she has found… 

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