Throwing away those credit card offers, bank statements and other personal mail without shredding it all first is a risky proposition. Maybe that’s alright for the gamblers out there, but we prefer to keep our identifying info safe and obscured. The problem with having a document shredder in the office is that they’re super-ugly and using them once a month doesn’t seem to justify the cost.

The impossibly adorable Manual Shredder designed by IDEA International is a totally different aesthetic for the document destroyer. It’s powered entirely by a hand crank so it’s quiet, and its plastic construction makes it look more like a kids’ toy than a serious office tool. But make not mistake: this cross-shredder really does tear it up when you need it to.

We can deal with the $42 price tag since this shredder can slide right onto the bookshelf or even sit right out on the desk without looking really unpleasant. The cranking arm folds down flat, allowing the shredder to look just like a small plastic box when not in use. Plus it comes in a variety of colors, including pink – so if you must outfit your home office to look like a cotton candy dreamscape, you won’t have to compromise on account of a stodgy old document shredder.

The post Hand-Powered Minimalist Shredder Destroys Papers in Style first appeared on Gajitz.

Just about everyone who has ever worked in an office can appreciate the desire to do horrible things to certain office documents. Well, thanks to the crazy geniuses at Japanese company Oriental Co., Ltd., you might soon be able to – and management will encourage it. The White Goat is a fancy on-site recycling machine that takes sheets of office paper and turns them into usable toilet paper. Using the machine can save 60 trees per year, so you can actually feel good about wiping with the quarterly expense reports or whatever other documents you feel like punishing.

If you ever made paper in junior high art class, the process will seem familiar: the paper is shredded, then water is added to break up the paper shreds and make a slurry. The slurry is spread out in a thin layer to try, and voila! It is toilet paper. When the paper is dry, it’s rolled up into a neat little roll that you can hang right in the office bathroom. The whole process only takes about 30 minutes, and each roll uses up 40 sheets of office paper. That’s a whole lot of passive-aggressive (but harmless) payback just waiting to happen. The company plans to make the machines commercially available in the summer of 2010. We can’t help but think that in the future, we’ll all have paper recycling machines in our homes and offices: junk mail goes in, printer paper comes out. We can’t wait!

The post Office Payback: Machine Turns Docs Into TP in 30 Minutes first appeared on Gajitz.