MCC Daily Tribune

For The Record: Shredders Can't Chew Binder Clips

Picture this:

You're alone in your records storage room. At your side is a box of records authorized for destruction. You tilt your head up and listen to the soft steady hum of the cooling fans. Then you cast your gaze down at the growling hungry maw of the shredder.

You take a deep breath, and open the box of destroyable records.

You grab a thick but not unreasonable stack of paper and place it in front of the shredder's salivating mouth. You offer up the records to the shredder, and wait for the relieving buzz of paper being pulverized. This buzz signals the offering has been successful. You will be blessed with a pile of paper pieces…

Or will you.

The shredder gnashes its teeth and grinds to a halt. The hum of the cooling fans chills your ears. Your offering has not been accepted. The shredder has found a displeasing piece of metal. Your shredder is jammed, and the only way to unjam it is to reach into the monster's jaws….

ALL this could have been avoided if your department had taken the time to remove all binder clips, paperclips and other objects that are not suitable for shredding! Here at the records storage facility, we have at least 50 Hot Wheels worth of scrap metal, collected from the many boxes of destruction that we destroy. We take the time to look for binder clips and other objects prior to shredding, but every now and then we miss one. We also get charged more if our shredding vendor finds them. So, if you're not the one feeding the shredder beast, you can still help keep it tame by removing binder clips, paperclips, and other crunchy metallic snacks before records make their journey to destruction.

Destroying records doesn't need to be hard, it just needs to be free of anything hard (aka binder clips, paperclips, you get the idea)

This has been, For The Record.

Glenn Tolle
Archives and Record Management
07/22/2026