Can you recycle shredded paper?

The councils that take it (56)

Each council's entry, in its own words where we hold them:

• Bexley: Shredded paper · Put it in a cereal box or paper bag first
• Blaby: “Shredded paper (must be put in a clear bag inside the recycling bin)”
• Bracknell Forest: “shredded paper (put in a small box, paper bag or wrap in newspaper)”
• Braintree: “Shredded paper - ideally in a paper or card container, such as an envelope or cereal box”
• Brent: Shredded paper · Blue sack; in an old envelope
• Bridgend: “shredded paper in small amounts”
• Bristol: Shredded paper · In a paper bag or envelope inside your blue bag
• Broadland: “shredded paper”
• Bromley: Shredded paper · In a large envelope, paper bag or cereal box
• Buckinghamshire: Shredded paper · Must be put in an envelope
• Bury: “paper and shredded paper”
• Cambridge: Shredded paper · Blue bin · in paper or clean plastic bag
• Central Bedfordshire: Shredded paper · Old cereal box, envelope, or wrapped in newspaper
• Charnwood: “Shredded paper”
• Cheltenham: “Shredded paper. Please put this inside a paper bag”
• Chorley: “shredded paper.”
• City of London: “Shredded paper can be placed first into an envelope or a small box such as a cereal box and then placed into your clear recycling bag.”
• Dumfries and Galloway: “shredded paper”
• Epping Forest: “Clean paper, card, newspapers, magazines and shredded paper”
• Epsom and Ewell: “Small amounts of shredded paper can be placed in an envelope, paper bag or small box and then placed in your recycling bin.”
• Folkestone and Hythe: “Shredded paper”
• Glasgow: Shredded paper · Blue bin
• Greenwich: Shredded paper · Loose, not in bags
• Hertsmere: “Shredded paper can go in the brown bin. It should be contained by wrapping in a newspaper or envelope to stop it blowing away.”
• Islington: Shredded paper
• King's Lynn and West Norfolk: “shredded paper”
• Manchester: Paper and shredded paper · Blue bin
• Merton: Shredded paper · In a paper envelope or bag, with your paper and card
• Midlothian: “Shredded paper (please enclose this in a paper envelope, paper bag or cardboard box)”
• Milton Keynes: Shredded paper · Shred only the part with sensitive information
• North Lanarkshire: Shredded paper
• North Somerset: Shredded paper · Box; in a paper bag or envelope
• Norwich: “Shredded paper”
• Nuneaton and Bedworth: “Shredded paper (wrapped in newspaper, put in a cardboard box or in a paper bag)”
• Oxford: “shredded paper”
• Plymouth: Shredded paper
• Reading: Shredded paper · In small cardboard box or envelope
• Richmond upon Thames: Shredded paper · Blue box; contain it in an envelope or cereal box
• Rossendale: “Shredded paper (ideally in a cardboard box or paper bag)”
• Rutland: “paper - newspapers, magazines, junk mail, envelopes, shredded paper and wrapping”
• Somerset: Shredded paper · In a tied carrier bag
• South Cambridgeshire: Shredded paper · Blue bin · in paper or clean plastic bag
• South Norfolk: “shredded paper”
• South Oxfordshire: “Shredded paper”
• Stevenage: “Shredded paper”
• Swansea: “shredded paper”
• Teignbridge: “shredded paper”
• Torridge: “We do accept shredded paper but we ask that it is placed in a tied bag within your green bag to prevent it from flying away when it is emptied.”
• Uttlesford: “Shredded paper”
• Vale of White Horse: “Shredded paper”
• Walsall: “Shredded paper”
• Welwyn Hatfield: “Shredded paper”
• West Devon: “Shredded paper (loosely tied in a bag)”
• West Oxfordshire: “paper, shredded paper, newspapers, magazines, junk mail”
• Wrexham: “Shredded paper”
• Wyre Forest: “shredded paper (contained within another paper item e.g. cereal box, envelope, paper bag)”

The councils whose lists keep it out (23)

Each council's entry, and where it says shredded paper goes instead where its list says so:

• Brighton and Hove: Shredded paper
• Chichester: “Shredded paper, paper towels and tissues.”
• County Durham: Shredded paper
• Coventry: Shredded paper · Instead: Green-lidded bin, animal bedding or home composting
• Crawley: “shredded paper”
• East Hampshire: Shredded paper
• Fareham: “Shredded paper: This cannot be recycled in blue top bins as it clogs up the machinery at the sorting plant.”
• Kirklees: “shredded paper”
• Lambeth: Shredded paper
• Leeds: Shredded paper · Causes machinery problems · Goes in your general waste bin
• Liverpool: Shredded paper; Shredded paper · Too small for sorting machinery · Goes in your general waste bin
• Newark and Sherwood: “shredded paper”
• Newcastle upon Tyne: Shredded paper · Bag it for the green rubbish bin, or compost it at home · Goes in your general waste bin
• Newham: Shredded paper
• North Warwickshire: “Shredded paper - you can put this in a home composting bin, use it for small animal bedding or only shred the sensitive parts (usually the top third) and recycle the rest” · Instead: Home composting bin or small animal bedding
• Northumberland: Shredded paper
• Portsmouth: Shredded paper
• Renfrewshire: “shredded paper”
• Rushcliffe: “Shredded paper”
• Solihull: “shredded paper”
• Wakefield: Shredded paper
• Winchester: “Shredded paper”
• Wolverhampton: “shredded paper ✖”

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