3 Creative Uses for Shredded Paper

Do you have a paper shredder at work? Or maybe you shred personal documents in your home office? With the growing concern for security and the looming potential for identity theft, many people have opted to shred their personal documents once they are no longer needed.

Don't throw away your shredded paper anymore; reuse it! These 3 tips will tell you how you can recycle your old phone bills, bank statements and junk mail!

Pet Cage Bedding
During an evening bird cage cleaning, I realized I was out of my normal pellet bedding. With no old newspapers in sight, and the guinea pig eyeing his own bedding, I knew I needed to find an alternative.

As I looked around the house for a suitable substrate, I decided to give the paper shreds in my paper shredder a try. Since my bird cage has a wire grate separating the birds from the bedding, I decided to use the shredded paper to cover their floor. Never use shredded miscellaneous paper where the birds could eat the paper. Colorful inks and cellophane panels on shredded envelopes are not safe for pets to eat!

The fluffy shredded paper seems to hide the bird seed hulls and bird waste quite well. I have even removed small portions of the shredded paper where it was heavily soiled, and simply replaced it with a handful of clean new shredded paper. Although the paper doesn't do much for odor control, you shouldn't have too much odor in a bird cage if it is being cleaned regularly.

Kindling for a Fire
With the onset of chilly evenings comes the backyard bonfire. A few weeks ago after mowing the lawn, I decided to wind down with a nice backyard bonfire. Since I had just mowed the yard, I couldn't find many small twigs for kindling.

After looking for some newspaper to get the fire started, and failing, I decided to fill the bonfire pit with shredded paper from my home office. The airy layer of paper curls above a few logs made great kindling.

If you decide to use your shredded paper waste for kindling, be sure you have enough of it, because it burns very fast!

Packaging and Padding
When preparing holiday packages, try using your shredded paper waste to pad the goodies inside. There's no need to buy styrofoam peanuts or pre-packaged paper shreds. Your own shredded paper can be used to pad holiday gifts.

Paper shreds are very versatile and can be used when preparing packages for mailing. It can fit around the odd shaped contents of your package, providing padding to ensure a safe and secure delivery.