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I have some documents that have sensitive information on them, which for obvious reasons I do not want others to get their hands on. How can I destroy these documents so that others cannot read them? I don't have access to a paper shredder, which is generally the recommended way of destroying them.

Robert Cartaino
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Dragonrage
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14 Answers14

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If you have a fire pit, or something similar that can contain a small fire, burning the documents will make it very hard to recover the information. Just be sure that the part where the information is located is burned, and use a stick or something to break down the ashes.

Dragonrage
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    Burn pits are notoriously ineffective at destroying paper documents. Rising air currents will carry partially-burned single sheets away from the flames, while bundled papers will burn only around the edges, leaving the information in the middle intact. – Mark Mar 03 '16 at 23:26
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    @Mark I generally burn them one at a time after crumpling them slightly. Also if you dip them in an accelerant, you can burn them even better. – Dragonrage Mar 03 '16 at 23:30
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    Burning is what we did in the military for classified materials if we didn't have a secure shredder handy (which was more often than not). A small fire works fine, as long as you make sure it is thoroughly burnt (we normally used lighter fluid to help this along). Once burnt, the ashes got flushed if near running water or scattered if not. – TIO Begs Mar 04 '16 at 05:14
  • When I have written down someone's credit card information (usually mine, but also applies to orders etc.) and want to destroy it, I usually take a piece of aluminum foil shaped into a bowl with a handle. I snip out the part I want to destroy, brush the paper with some coconut oil to give it some extra burning power, then crumple it into a ball (to discourage flight) and head outside so that I don't set off the smoke detectors. As long as there's fewer than, say, 20-30 slips of paper this can be done within about 15 minutes and the ashes can be washed down the drain with no hope of recovery. – CR Drost Mar 04 '16 at 15:58
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    @CRDrost I'd be curious as to why you are writing down other people's credit card information on paper. It seems horribly insecure. – Tim S. Mar 04 '16 at 17:43
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    I once worked somewhere where they were approved to burn classified docs. A special screen had to be installed in the exhaust stack to catch unburnt fragments. – Carl Witthoft Mar 04 '16 at 20:00
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    @TimS. I'm curious about why you think that some random private citizen writing credit card details is less secure than whatever retailer whose database of millions of credit card numbers got hacked most recently. One person writing down a few details is unlikely to cause any problems, since they're not a worthwhile target and the cost of any breach is small. Also, pieces of paper can't be remotely hacked, which reduces the threat surface massively. – David Richerby Mar 04 '16 at 23:16
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    Let me put it this way. If you went to a store to pay for items with a credit card, and the cashier took out a piece of paper (not a credit card slip, mind you) and started writing down your name and CC#, would you be okay with that? Even if they said "oh, our card system is down" or something similar? There is a general assumption that credit card information is sensitive enough to not be written down like that on an unofficial medium. The fact that databases get hacked is a completely separate issue. – Tim S. Mar 04 '16 at 23:24
  • @CRDrost That's a lot of work. As a hack you could try just scratching it out with the same pen. A loooong time ago I discovered a pretty straight forward hatch pattern that will unrecoverably obscure writing. Do vertical, horzontal, and diagonal (both directions) lines, then a final touch with circles. The lines don't even have to be that close together. Try it. – Captain Obvious Mar 05 '16 at 22:00
  • @DavidRicherby "Also, pieces of paper can't be remotely hacked" Not yet. ;-) –  Mar 08 '16 at 10:07
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    @TimS.: When I travelled to the USA a few years ago, and wanted to pay for delivered pizza by card, the delivery bloke took a physical, paper imprint of my card and took it away with him. Apparently this is fairly commonplace? Needless to say I was not impressed. It would be unthinkable here in the UK; we prefer our data insecurities to be obfuscated behind digital systems so that we can pretend they don't exist :P – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 08 '16 at 13:22
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    Why did you ask a really obvious question only to post the really obvious answer? It looks like a cheap attempt to harvest rep, but I'm sure there's more to it. the only reasonable explanation is that you didn't know the answer when you posted the question. So can we have a reference as to where you found out about this 'fire' thing? – Steve Ives Mar 09 '16 at 09:52
  • Just throw it into water. After a few hours, the text on it would be erased and and blurry. Afterwards, you can just rip the already weakened paper into hundreds of pieces by hand. Then, toss them into fire or into your toilet. – John Sep 04 '17 at 13:03
  • Large ceramic pots, or metal bins, can withstand the heat that a couple of burning papers emit. –  Feb 12 '19 at 18:55
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Blender or food processor with water. Turn it into pulp.

Tristan
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    The bonus here being that you now have paper pulp so if you have some creativity, you can do paper maché work or make your own pressed recycled paper for a more natural looking gift/holiday/get well card. I knew a lady who was into calligraphy and would make her own paper. – coblr Mar 04 '16 at 20:00
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    Also, the benefit of this over @djsmiley2k's answer is that you don't have to worry about small bits of soggy paper getting down your drain and adding to the clog that is inevitably already forming from normal shower/bath use. It will take some time, but is a much more controlled process. – coblr Mar 04 '16 at 20:11
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    @fractalspawn or if you are Teller from Penn and Teller, you have a nice Smoothie. – Ryan Apr 27 '16 at 16:05
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There isn't much substitute for the standby methods, burning or shredding. Most secure is to crosscut shred, then burn, and finally disrupt the ashes by grinding into fine powder or washing down a drain.

Zeiss Ikon
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  • Comments have been purged on this answer. Please keep comments on topic. For extended discussions, please use [chat] instead. – bwDraco Mar 06 '16 at 20:55
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Bath full of water, and then a sharp knife swilled around once they are nice and soggy will do a great job of destoying everything.

Add bleach or something corrosive to ensure ink is wreaked beyond readability.

djsmiley2kStaysInside
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  • does the knife have to be sharp? – Dragonrage Mar 03 '16 at 20:29
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    An unsharp knife is just a stick. Maybe you need -> https://lifehacks.stackexchange.com/questions/11247/how-can-i-sharpen-a-knife ? – djsmiley2kStaysInside Mar 03 '16 at 20:32
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    growing up we distinguished between knifes like steak knifes as sharp, and knifes like butter knifes as not sharp – Dragonrage Mar 03 '16 at 20:36
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    Bleach might work against organic inks, but I wouldn't expect it to be effective against graphite or toner. – Mark Mar 03 '16 at 23:37
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    Careful; you might invoke another "life hack" with this one... I'm pretty sure that "How do I clean my bath tub without actually cleaning my bath tub?" is already a question here in some form or another. – Captain Obvious Mar 04 '16 at 20:57
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    @Dragonrage I know this is lifehacks and not English, but it's supposed to be "knives", not "knifes". – Pharap Mar 08 '16 at 00:31
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If you don't mind manual labour, you can tear it by hand.

Since tearing it by hand isn't perfect, you can cut out the important part and scatter it across different locations.

This will avoid people finding the jigsaw puzzle pieces!

Also, if you are really bored, you can compete with someone else (that you trust) to see who can tear the most number of papers at once

Ismael Miguel
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Take the papers to your local copy shop and let them shred it for you. This is probably the easiest way to take care of them.

For example, Fedex/Kinkos will shred documents for 99 cents per pound (around 100 sheets per pound depending on paper size and thickness).

Johnny
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  • +1. I just took some to my local copy shop today. I find this to be a cheaper and easier option than repeatedly buying cheap shredders that fail when you need them. – Ben Miller Mar 10 '16 at 23:58
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Folding the paper onto it itself several times, then cutting the result as small as you can with strong scissors (nibbling away mm by mm), a carpet knife, bolt/ wire cutters, sandpaper/whetstone ... will give you a lot of cutting for a little :) I mention wire cutters because good wire cutters WILL cut paper too, and will probably survive a stack of paper better than average scissors :)

rackandboneman
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Eating the doucment always works and you don't need fuel source or nearby water source.

Theodosius Von Richthofen
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In cases like this, I tear or cut them into strips and put the strips alternately with the old paper and with the compostables (fruit and veg remains). Anybody wanting to recreate them will have to sort through huge amounts of old paper and rummage through disgusting compost.

NL_Derek
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    You would not believe how many low-level operatives the various intelligence agencies have hanging around for just such a situation. "Comrade Flunki - go through compost pile and extract classified information!". "But, Supreme Leader...". "OR ELSE!!!!" "(sigh) Yes, Supreme Leader..." – Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні Mar 04 '16 at 21:50
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Has anyone suggested simply burying them? It would take a bit of effort to dig the hole, but the paper would biodegrade in no time. Alternatively, mix them in with garden waste and potato peelings and the like and it will all eventually become compost. Use that on your garden and nourish your plants with those unwanted reports and correspondence.

maguirenumber6
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    Burying stacks of paper is not actually a good way to get them to break down. If they were shredded and mixed with dirt and water, and spread thinly, you might get somewhere, but decomposition is pretty slow for paper in low-oxygen environments. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/13/nyregion/seeking-the-truth-in-refuse.html?pagewanted=all – Adam Mar 04 '16 at 21:24
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    Someone may dig them up. – k-l Mar 04 '16 at 21:24
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    The probability of being seen when burying them is high. – Nicolas Raoul Mar 09 '16 at 09:05
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How to completely destroy sensitive paper documents—without shredding or burning.

You'll need an old pair of panty-hose with no holes in them. One pair of panty-hose will be enough for two "treatments." Cut off a leg of the panty-hose.

Put your documents into one leg of the panty-hose and knot it tightly closed.

Toss it into the washer. Put it through a wash cycle with some detergent.

Done.

Discard the wad of wet fibre residue without removing it from the 'bag.'

I have not yet found any personal information that survives this treatment.

Stan
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I have thought of 2 solutions for this:

  1. Burn the document. Use a match to ignite its edges (Be careful) and let it burn slowly (NOT in flames). The fire will slowly eat through the document. Burn it until the essential part of the document is gone, then put it out by blowing at it. For safety reasons, it may be best to do this above a bathtub filled with water. Also, be careful not to burn your hand.

  2. Throw the document into water. After several minutes, it will be extremly soft and easy to rip. Just remove it from the water and rip it by hand into tens or hundreds of small paper pieces, easily.

John
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    Welcome to Lifehacks! I've downvoted this answer, but please don't take it personally. I'll explain why. It is best to read the already-existing answers on a question to make sure you aren't duplicating them. Both of the methods mentioned in your answer were already mentioned in other answers.

    Additionally (and this is unrelated to why I downvoted), it is usually best to leave multiple answers separately so that they can be voted on based on their own merits.

     – Sterno Mar 08 '16 at 17:44
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    I do take it personally, since I haven't replicated another answers intentionally. And don't think I am a new user. I'm active here from at least 3 days and I struggled to get 10 additional reputation to answer this protected question. But I see that only who is first can answer. @Sterno – John Mar 08 '16 at 18:13
  • Actually, the document burning solution is from burning my picture on its edges, to give a saved-out-of-fire look. @Sterno – John Mar 08 '16 at 18:16
  • @John, here is special case Only who is ask is first can answer :) – StahlRat Mar 08 '16 at 18:34
  • You mean that the OP self-answered his question? Or is it just a word puzzle? @StahlRat – John Mar 08 '16 at 18:42
  • Have you readen that I don't suggest to throw it into a firepit, but instead to use a match to ignite the document? @Sterno – John Mar 08 '16 at 20:01
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    @John, Yes and yes :) I'm really puzzled with what is really going on here. OP asks question with obvious answer, gets bunch of votes from ppl who thinks that the question is cool, then OP gives obvious answer, gets bunch of votes again (here I LOL). Then OP selects his answer as the correct one (makes me LOL again). – StahlRat Mar 09 '16 at 02:33
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A little bit of sandpaper can easily remove all the writing, and make it impossible to recreate. Since ink is surface deep (if you have an efficient printer), it takes only a couple seconds to scrub away all evidence. Although, your desk might not appreciate it. Use an old magazine, or scrap composite wood, or stone tiles, etc.

Probably not the easiest way to destroy large amounts of evidence.

Aidan Tung
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  1. Feed the documents to a pig.

  2. Wait until the pig dies of old age (or have him humanely slaughtered (if such a thing is possible)).

  3. Cremate the pig [citation needed].

  4. Have the pig's ashes turned into a diamond.

  5. Pay $99 to send the diamond into space.

  6. For added security, try to bribe someone to have the diamond launched into a decaying orbit which will pull it into the sun.

   6a. if 6) is not possible, wait for wither a) the death of anyone who might be interested in the documents, or b) the ultimate heat death of the universe (caveat: unless we are dealing with Thetans, in which case all bets are probably off, and you would be advised to substitute yourself for the pig

In extremist, I imagine that donkey could be substituted for the pig, although I must caution that I have never tried this, and so cannot guarantee success.

Mawg says reinstate Monica
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