No, you do not need to remove staples, paper clips, or binder clips before professional shredding in Vancouver. Industrial mobile shredding trucks like the ones INFOshred operates throughout Maple Ridge, BC and Greater Vancouver are built to chew through small metal fasteners alongside paper. The blades are hardened steel, the cutters are sized for high-volume office records, and the staples end up sorted out of the recycled paper stream by magnets at the mill. Pulling each staple by hand before a pickup is one of the most common time-wasters we see at law firms, accounting offices, and strata council clean-outs in BC.
There is a difference, though, between can and should. There are a few items that genuinely do need to come out before your boxes hit the shredding truck. This guide walks through exactly what stays in, what needs to leave, and how to prep a purge the right way for an onsite shredding service in Vancouver BC.
The Short Answer for Vancouver Businesses and Households
When INFOshred pulls up to a Vancouver office or Maple Ridge condo, our mobile shredding truck can handle:
- Standard staples (Bostitch, Swingline, basic office staples)
- Paper clips (steel, plastic-coated, jumbo)
- Binder clips (small, medium, large)
- Rubber bands
- File folders (manila, hanging, with metal tabs)
- Sticky notes and Post-it tabs
- Envelopes with plastic windows
- Receipts, carbon copies, NCR forms
You do not have to sort by document type, remove staples, or empty file folders. Drop the records straight into a secure shredding container or banker’s box and we handle the rest. Less prep time means lower cost and faster service, which matters when you’re already paying by volume.
Why Industrial Shredders Eat Staples Without Issue
Office paper shredders fail at staples because they are built for occasional use, low duty cycles, and thin paper stacks. The blades dull quickly when they hit metal, motors overheat, and jams happen daily. That is one of the biggest paper shredding mistakes Vancouver businesses make when they try to handle high volumes in-house.
Mobile shredding trucks are a different machine entirely. Our cutting chamber is fed by a powerful conveyor and uses cross-cut steel blades rated for hundreds of pounds of paper per minute. The shredders are designed for "in-feed contamination," which is the industry term for staples, clips, and small metal. After shredding, the paper bits go through a magnetic separator at the recycling facility that pulls metal out before pulping. Nothing gets thrown off course.
This is the same reason large commercial providers like Shred-it, Iron Mountain, and Staples Canada all confirm publicly that customers do not need to remove staples before shredding. The industry standard across North America is "leave them in." INFOshred follows that same standard for every mobile paper shredding pickup in Greater Vancouver.
What You Should Remove Before Shredding
There is a short list of items that do need to come out of the boxes before pickup, both for safety and for clean recycling:
| Item | Reason | What to Do |
|---|---|---|
| Three-ring binders (full size) | Metal rings damage feed conveyors | Empty pages into a box; recycle binder separately |
| Hardcover books | Glue and board do not shred cleanly | Donate or send to paper recycling |
| Large metal clamps and clipboards | Larger than what the magnetic separator handles | Set aside |
| Hard drives, USB sticks, SD cards | Need hard drive shredding, not paper shredding | Bag separately for media destruction |
| CDs, DVDs, magnetic tape | Different shred specification | Bag separately; we destroy these too |
| Batteries, liquids, food waste | Hazardous contamination | Dispose properly elsewhere |
| X-rays, laminated cards | Special handling needed | Ask in advance |
Three-ring binders are the most common item that catches Vancouver clients off guard. The metal rings are larger than what the shredder is designed for and they can damage the conveyor. The fix is simple: dump the paper out into a box and put the empty binder aside to reuse, recycle, or donate.
How to Prep a Vancouver Office Purge
A clean purge moves faster, costs less, and gives you a tighter certificate of destruction at the end. Here is the process we walk through with new commercial accounts in Burnaby, Surrey, Coquitlam, and Maple Ridge.
Step 1: Use banker’s boxes or our locked containers. Standard 12 x 15 x 10 inch banker’s boxes hold roughly 30 pounds of paper, which is the volume increment most Vancouver shredding companies bill on. If you have an ongoing purge, ask about a locked shredding container so staff can drop files in throughout the week.
Step 2: Pull out binders, books, and electronics. Everything else can stay in.
Step 3: Do not unstaple, unclip, or unfold anything else. Time is money for both of us. The shredder does not care.
Step 4: Label boxes with the department or owner if relevant. Useful for chain-of-custody documentation and your internal audit trail.
Step 5: Book the truck. Mobile shredding in Vancouver is typically scheduled within 48 hours, often next-day during tax season and year-end purges.
Does Removing Staples Save Money?
No. Mobile shredding in BC is priced by volume (per pound, per box, or per minute on-site), not by paper-only weight. Spending two hours of staff time removing staples to save a few cents in materials costs you significantly more in payroll than the shredding bill ever would. We have measured this on real client purges in Vancouver: at a $35/hour blended rate, every ten minutes of prep time costs more than a banker’s box of additional shredding.
This is one of the reasons businesses migrate away from in-house shredders in the first place. The hidden cost of prep, jams, and disposal almost always exceeds professional service for any office producing more than a few boxes of records per year.
What Happens to the Staples After Shredding?
The shredded paper from INFOshred trucks goes to certified recycling mills in BC and the Pacific Northwest. At the mill, the slurry of paper passes over magnets that pull all ferrous metal (staples, clips, and any incidental steel) out of the pulp before it becomes new paper. The recovered metal is sold as scrap and recycled separately. The plastic from coated clips and binder tabs is filtered out at a later stage.
The full chain is documented on your certificate of destruction, which proves your records were destroyed and recycled in compliance with BC PIPA and federal PIPEDA requirements. Auditors, insurers, and regulators all accept this certificate as proof.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a regular office shredder handle staples?
Most consumer and small-office shredders cannot. They are rated for occasional staple feed at best, and metal contact dulls the blades quickly. Commercial mobile shredders are built to handle staples continuously, which is one of the main reasons businesses outsource shredding rather than buying a bigger machine.
Do I need to remove staples before drop-off shredding in Vancouver?
No. Whether you drop off at a Vancouver paper shredding partner or schedule a mobile pickup, you do not need to remove staples, paper clips, or rubber bands. The industrial shredders at the receiving facility handle them.
What about heavy-duty staples or metal fasteners?
Standard heavy-duty staples (the kind used on thicker reports and packets) are fine. Long metal prongs from old-school file fasteners are also fine. Only oversized clamps, three-ring binder spines, and books need to be removed.
Are staples recyclable after shredding?
Yes. The magnetic separator at the recycling mill pulls all steel out of the paper pulp. The recovered metal is sold to scrap recyclers and reused.
Will leaving staples in slow down the shredding?
No. The truck shreds at the same rate whether the documents are stapled, clipped, or loose. The only thing that slows a purge down is removing items by hand.
Do you charge extra if there are staples in the boxes?
No. Pricing is by volume only. Staples, clips, and folders are included in every mobile shredding service we run in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Langley, Coquitlam, and Maple Ridge.
Ready to Schedule Your Shredding in Greater Vancouver?
If you have a stack of boxes waiting for the shredder, leave the staples in. INFOshred runs onsite mobile shredding routes throughout the Lower Mainland from our Maple Ridge, BC base, with a 4.8-star Google rating and a Certificate of Destruction included on every job.
Get a free quote or call 604-716-9464. Same-week scheduling is usually available, with next-day service during tax season and year-end record purges.
