How to burn up a lot of thick paper?

That's what we did. DW and I have had to sort through the accumulated papers of her mother, two grandparents and an aunt. Other than quickly thumbing through that stacks to be sure there wasn't anything of potential value (e.g. forgotten stock certificates, bonds), we just pitched boxes and boxes full.

Then put it in the compost pile.

Some banks offer the service once a month with an onsite document shredding service in the parking lot.

I compost all my paper and unless it is packed tight, like a stack of newspapers, it dissapears in a few months. My wife used to board her horse at a barn that used shredded paper as stall bedding. It worked just fine and composted down in the manure pile very fast.

If you had pigs in a pen, I would guess you could just throw a big bunch of paper in the pen every day to adsorb smells. My neighbor's pig pen certainly got better smelling with an application of carbon in the form of wood chips. If an identity thief wants to wade into the boar's pen and try to extract manure and mud covered paper, have fun with that.

I just did this. I put the boxes one by one in an old portable firepit we have that is all rusted out but still has the screen. I lit the fire with a propane weed burner for a few minutes and then came back every few hours to stir and flame with the weed burner for a few minutes. I could burn about two boxes a day and was left with just a few inches of ash after six boxes. The trick was to stir them often and they seemed to smoulder along just fine with no visible flames.

We use old bills and statements as kindling in any and all fires, so the smoker, grill, bonfire, fire just for boredom's sake.
If you can put together several cinder blocks in a large rectangle, single layer, then toss a bunch of paper loosely, set it on fire and add papers as it burns. Too much at once will smother the fire.

I would never pour gas or any kind on a fire, unless you don't need your face or w/e else might be near by to catch fire...Also, open air fires are illegal after X time in some States, so don't make a big pile if it's illegal, a neighbor is bound to call the cops. =/


Thinking some more about it, I would probably dig a long hole, fill it with papers, add manure of some animal and cap it with dirt and grass seed. It'll be gone in no time w/o all the burning and watching.

Thank you everyone. After more sorting, we have more boxes now. Am trying to find shredder service. Thanks.

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several years ago my dh agreed to burn his company's old business files on our property. It took 3-4 people a good three days to do it. They would have saved so much money had they had it professionally shredded.

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Well, it's not burning, but I put all of my uncle's financial papers (he was 90 when he died and never threw any financial statement out) in the free stall barn and let the cows take care of them. This was in the summer when the cows were in and out and I might only clean it every week or even less depending on how much they were in there. When I cleaned the barn out next the papers had completely disappeared. I get rid of most of my sensitive stuff this way, but had not done it in large amounts like this. Has to be a wet barn, though. Can't just mix it with dry manure and expect to get it to disappear without real composting. The cows just make it into manure paper maché.

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Well since he still has his thesis on computer punch card and had every paper since, I'm sure he knew what he didn't have to keep since he approved her getting it all shredded.

Got a burn barrel? Put some in loosely, light it, come back later and put more in . Repeat. You may want to have a few beers while you do this.

We used a national Office supply store who offers a shredding service. They charge by the pound and I had a coupon to get the first 5 lbs free. It was worth the ride and the expense to get it out of the garage. I have another few boxes to go and will do the same.

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Take a hand garden cultivator with nice sharp tines to the stacks and they should burn clean through.

I end up wit a lot of files to dispose of every year our bank has a free shred day a couple of time a year this works.... In the past my husband would dig a deep hole in the bottom of our fall, winter, spring pond fill it with the papers and cover it over, he would just remember where he buried the last stuff and pick new place the next year...