Best Plastic Shredders For Shredding CDs, DVDs & Credit Cards
What is a shredder and what are its purposes?
What types of shredders exist on the market?
Is there a difference between a paper shredder and plastic shredder? Which one is for you? In this text, we’ll answer these questions and will also present a couple of shredders on the market to help you decide what you need.
For starters, there are two very different types of shredders. The industrial shredder is mainly used in large factories and places where there is a need for waste management with the purpose of recycling. This article will be focusing on the other one, the office type of a shredder. Shredder as a part of the office is also called consumer shredder. Paper shredder can cut through paper documents, whilst plastic shredder can also cut credit cards and even CDs and DVDs.
Here, we will do a comparison of a few most popular plastic shredders for an office. We’ll compare the shredders by the type of cut it does. It’s the most important thing to factor in when buying a shredder. There are three types of cuts: strip cut (cuts into strips and documents can be put back together easily), cross-cut (cuts the paper into small pieces which makes it really hard to reassemble the document, but not entirely impossible) and micro-cut (practically makes confetti out of papers which makes it impossible to put the document back together).
Aside from the type of cut the plastic shredders have, we will also be comparing the run time period as well as the period the device needs to cool down, the capacity of the bin, the number of sheets that can fit at a time in the shredder and so on.
It’s important to note that most manufacturers in their instructions state that it’s better not to test sheet capacity limits of a device. They usually state that you should put a maximum 70% number of sheets because the motor will otherwise struggle and might overheat.
Most Popular Plastic Shredder Models on the Market
AmazonBasics 8-Sheet Cross-Cut Paper and Credit Card Shredder
The first plastic shredder we’ll talk about in this article is AmazonBasics 8-sheet Cross-cut Paper and Credit card shredder. Manufactured by Amazon Basics, it has the Cross-cut type of cut and it fits 8 sheets of paper at the time. You can cut paper (with staples) and credit cards with it, but it cannot cut through CDs and DVDs.
You can cut for 3 minutes at a time and it takes 30 minutes for it to cool down so it can be used again. It’s smaller in size and it doesn’t take up much space, but that means that the bin needs to be emptied more often. It weighs 9.9 pounds and the color it comes in is black. Being relatively light and smaller in dimensions, not only does it fit small spaces, but is also easy to move around.
The paper needs to be put in the device in a specific angle when shredding, probably for safety purposes. The design of the shredder makes it easier to pack the trash when the bin reaches it’s capacity because lets you open the device completely without the shreds falling out of the bin. The shreds themselves aren’t on the smaller side, but for household papers and documents would probably be okay. The biggest downside is that it can only shred credit cards and can’t cut through CDs and DVDs.
This specifical plastic shredder is probably most functional at home or in small offices where there isn’t a big number of pages to shred and those same pages aren’t very confidential. It also has a function called auto mode, which when on detects if there is something that needs to be shredded, and starts cutting on its own. It’s budget friendly and it does its job for the price.
AmazonBasics 8-Sheet Strip-Cut Paper, CD, and Credit Card Shredder
This AmazonBasics shredder, also made by AmazonBasics, looks like the first model I have shown you, but it has a few different specifications. The Strip-Cut type of cut is less secure than the Cross-Cut. That being said, if someone really wanted to, they would probably be able to put the pieces of the document back together, because the width of the strips would be ¼ of an inch.
Running time for this device is 2 minutes, but the cooling down period is 15 minutes. After the two minutes, it shuts down automatically, so it doesn’t overheat. You can shred a maximum of 8 documents at a time, without having to remove staples. It has auto-mode, which starts the shredder when the sensor reads that there is something to be shredded. The paper needs to be put precisely inside, otherwise, it can lead to paper jams. If a paper jam happens, the manual reverse function allows you to clear the jam. It doesn’t come with casters, but as the device weighs 6.25, so it’s not a problem to move it around if needed.
Apart from papers and credit cards, this model of plastic shredders also cuts CDs and DVDs which go in a different slot from paper. The credit cards though can be put in only vertically in the slot if you want to cut correctly, but with the Strip-Cut feature, the numbers on the card could still be readable. This shredder is for someone who’s looking for a cheaper solution for their home or office but doesn’t need the highest level of security.
Aurora AU870MA High-Security Paper Credit Card Shredder Black
If you’re looking for something that does provide a higher level of safety, there’s Aurora AU870MA shredder. The weight is a little less than 12 pounds, but it’s still on the smaller side size-wise and can fit under a desk. The Micro-Cut feature makes the pieces of paper impossible to put back together, which is great for security purposes.
It can cut credit cards, but cannot cut CDs and DVDs. It says it can cut up to 8 sheets of paper at a time, but it’s not recommended to shred at its maximum capacity. There is no need to remove the paper clips or staples from the document. The running time is up to 5 minutes, which makes it work longer than the previous two models, but it’s still not too long if you need to destroy a large number of documents. There is an auto-start feature, so when the sensor.on the device reads something to be shredded, it turns the device on and also turns it off when it’s done.
The manual reverse function allows you to pull out papers if they get stuck inside the cutters. The auto shut-off function turns the device off if it starts overheating, and it also comes with a LED indicator that lets you know when the overheating starts. The capacity of the bin is not large, but separating the shredder from the bin is easy which also makes emptying the bin easy. The machine itself comes in the color black. All in all, it’s a great shredder if you need a bigger security level, but there isn’t a large number of papers that need to be cut.
The Bonsaii Card Shredder with 5.5 Gallon Wastebasket Capacity and Window is a Cross-Cut type of a shredder. It cuts papers with staples and clips as well as Credit cards and CDs. The pieces left after the shredding aren’t as small as it would be expected from a Cross-Cut shredder.
The device itself weighs 10.13 pounds and is fairly small, so it can fit discreetly into office space and it comes in color black. The dimensions make it somewhat easy to transport, even without the casters. The trash bin has a small window, so you can see if it needs emptying. Like the other models, it has auto-start function and manual reverse so you can clear the paper jams.
The motor has overheating protection device that shuts off the shredder if it detects overheating after 4-5 minutes of working. It says on the product details that it cuts up to 12 pieces of paper, but it’s not recommended to test the shredder to its maximum capacity. If you don’t need to shred large quantities of paper at a time, this device is perfectly fine. Because, after working for 3-5 minutes it needs a cooling down period of 15-30 minutes, so if you have a lot of paper to destroy, you’ll probably have to wait for it to start again. The noise of the motor is pretty loud.
This Bonsaii model is the strongest plastic shredder on this list. It has the largest capacity but is also the most expensive one. It can fit up to 18 pages at a time and the shredding with this device goes on for up to one hour without having to shut itself off to prevent overheating. It’s on the heavier side of the range, with 23.1 pounds, but you get 4 casters with it so you can move it around your office space if needed. The motor is silent and discreet.
The auto-start function enables it to start automatically after the sensor detects something to be shredded and stops it after it’s done. The bin works on an easy pull-out principle which makes it simple to empty, but sometimes it gets stuck on something inside, so it’s a bit tricky to pull the bin out. It has a larger capacity, so it doesn’t have to be emptied as frequently as the other models we talked about.
The paper format that goes in the shredder is standard A4, the CDs, DVDs and Credit Cards get destroyed easily, because of the strong motor and sharp blades. You have to put the paper inside pretty precisely, because of the narrow paper slot. It has auto-reverse function, so if the paper jams, the shredder automatically ejects a little bit of the paper, so you can pull the rest out and clear the jam.
