While on the street, I have sometimes had to dispose of papers with important information on them. It's a problem to just straight up throw such things out. It can put you at risk of identify theft or of someone breaking into your bank account and stealing your meager funds and so on.
In the past, I handled this by tearing things up as best I could, sticking it in a public trash can and then pouring water or soda over the whole thing in hopes that making it wet would mean that it was essentially unsalvageable. I was never totally comfortable with that solution, but I felt it was better than nothing.
Yesterday, I had a small single piece of paper in my wallet that I needed to dispose of safely because of the information on it. I ultimately decided to tear it up and flush it down a toilet. Yay!
This is not a means to dispose of a lot of papers at one time, but I assume most homeless people aren't dealing with a big wad of papers most of the time. For a sheet or two of paper, this should not clog the toilet and get you in trouble and it's secure. No one is going to get your data after you tore it up and flushed it down a toilet.
In the past, I handled this by tearing things up as best I could, sticking it in a public trash can and then pouring water or soda over the whole thing in hopes that making it wet would mean that it was essentially unsalvageable. I was never totally comfortable with that solution, but I felt it was better than nothing.
Yesterday, I had a small single piece of paper in my wallet that I needed to dispose of safely because of the information on it. I ultimately decided to tear it up and flush it down a toilet. Yay!
This is not a means to dispose of a lot of papers at one time, but I assume most homeless people aren't dealing with a big wad of papers most of the time. For a sheet or two of paper, this should not clog the toilet and get you in trouble and it's secure. No one is going to get your data after you tore it up and flushed it down a toilet.