Can You Shred Cardboard and Plastic in an Electric Shredder?

Many items like plastic bottles, hard drives, laptops, computers, and flash drives can be minimized in size by using a shredding machine. Online dictionaries typically define a shredder as “equipment used to destroy documents as a confidentiality safeguard to minimize identity theft,” however, there are many kinds of shredders.

Paper shredders are commonly used for cutting purposes. Many inexpensive and moderately priced shredders may also destroy plastic cards, CDs, DVDs, cardboard, etc. Therefore, 12 shredder blades should be plenty for most light cardboard shredding projects.

What Items Can You Shred in an Electric Shredder?

Shredders handling 18 to 24 sheets of paper are ideal, but a heavy-duty model is better for the occasional shredding of cardboard.

There are specialized shredding machines for several recycling applications, such as polyethylene, base metals, electronic waste, wood, and tires. Shredders come in a wide variety, each ideally suited to destroying a specific type of material. Most of the time, a high-velocity chipper is used to shred a tree branch.

Granulators are commonly used to shred plastic, but larger plastic shapes are sometimes run through a shredder first. In most cases, a hammer mill is used for this operation when planning to shred automobiles. A twin-shaft ripping machine offers flexibility while producing less dust and noise, making it a promising option for processing a wide range of waste materials.

The shredding process yields raw materials that can be recycled into production and finished goods like garden mulch.

Cardboard Shredding

Cardboard shredding machines are used in factories and warehouses to recycle cardboard scraps quickly and efficiently into new cardboard boxes. Machines designed to pulverize cardboard can produce many forms of padding, such as chips, flat nets, and strips.

Used cardboard boxes can be shredded in a machine like that of paper. The machine transforms cardboard scraps into recyclable and superior void fill strips, chips, netting, and other packaging uses. Machines that shred cardboard is safe, straightforward, and easy to use.

Boxboard can be recycled into applicable active packaging using a cardboard shredding machine. Using this cardboard instead of buying new packing materials and trash bins is good for the environment and your wallet.

A cardboard shredding machine can repurpose cardboard scraps into a variety of void backfill for use in shipping without negatively impacting the environment.

Plastic Shredding

Shredding machines are commonly used in the plastics industry to produce small enough bits for granulation.

Shredding machines, as opposed to plastic granulators, are built to handle substantial plastic waste items like car bumpers, drums, pipes, and other things that are too big to be processed by granulators.

Large plastic items are manually fed into the shredders. Blades that move at lower rates than granulators shred the plastic into smaller pieces. These particles are gathered, purified, and processed at recycling and treatment facilities to prepare them for granulation and shipment to manufacturers.

In addition to lowering overall plastic consumption, this machine has several other benefits. Plastic is used in various end products, from storage containers and packaging bags to toys and electronics.

Grinder, granulator, chipper, and hammer mill are just a few machines that accomplish the same goal of breaking down large particles into smaller ones. Their primary function is to lower the volume of a substance.

What Kind of Electric Shredder Can You Use?

There is a wide price range for shredders, from small, affordable devices made for a limited number of pages to massive, high-priced units used by corporate shredding services that can destroy millions of documents each hour. Only the smallest shredders are operated by hand, but most rely on electricity.

Shredders have evolved to incorporate new features that make the device easier to use. Some shredders are quieter than others, making them more suitable for usage in communal areas such as offices and copy rooms.

Our Final Thoughts

If you are wondering whether you can shred cardboard and plastic in an electric paper shredder, here is the verdict:

If the shredder’s packaging doesn’t specify the kind of materials it can handle, you shouldn’t try.

Attempting to do so in a home setting would exceed the motor’s capabilities, resulting in possible damage to the shredder and even bodily harm if parts broke off. Hence, it is ideal if you give New Jersey Shredding a try!