As identity theft is one of the fastest growing frauds these days, paper shredders become increasingly important to be used in offices where there are a number of sensitive & confidential documents to be destroyed very safely. These documents may be bank statements, credit card statements, important email printouts, etc.



Due to the increasing need of security, this product becomes extremely important for all offices & so choosing the right one for your office also becomes imperative.

These days, a paper shredder comes in all sizes & shapes matching to the need of every office whether large or small. There are shredders to be used by a single person, others to be used by two or three individuals or for a group of workers & also those big ones to be used by the entire office.

They are usually light in weight & very affordable for companies for whom the security issue is extremely important. In fact, there is so much variety available these days that one can go for the best balance of price, features, and performance.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of shredders available in the market, cross-cut shredders & strip-cut shredders. Strip-cut shredders slice the paper into long, thin strips. They are also known as straight-cut or spaghetti-cut. So don't get confused when any of these names are mentioned to you, they are all the same. They are usually suitable for offices where the volume of the paper to be shed is high. Strip-cut shredders are generally less expensive & require less maintenance. While cross-cut shredders, also called confetti-cut shredders, cut the paper both horizontally as well as vertically, resulting in very small chunks, thus providing more security & making the job much more difficult for identity thieves to put them together. Such shredders are generally more expensive & also require more maintenance.

The mouth of the shredder has to be big enough so that a large paper can also be put in it easily, but at the same time, it should be safe for hands. Previously, the shredders were not secure to the user's hands & many accidents took place in different offices, but now thanks to some completely safe shredders that automatically stop when the user's hand is too close to it.

Another issue that arises as you use any shredder is paper jamming. One should go for those shredders that are 100% jam proof. Such shredders eliminate frustrating jams by preventing overloads by shredding in a very organized way.

Other features that one could see while deciding which shredder to buy are the design, paper count system, built-in baskets, racks for plastic bags, automatic oiling & warranty.

Besides these shredders for office use, there are also other shredders available for personal use, industrial use or departmental use. There are also high-security shredders that even shred CDs & DVDs. In each category, one finds a wide variety that is available these days in the market.