Recycling various paper items and documents is a good thing for the environment. However,  documents bearing personal information should be put through a shredder and not into the recycle bin.

To protect yourself from identity theft, shred all mail you receive that contains your name, address and valuable personal information. You know, like those credit card companies that send out tons of mailings bearing your name and address with sample credit cards included. (Most shredders will shred credit cards through a small slot near the main

Or, after one year you can shred unimportant bank records, but keep the rest. Paycheck stubs can be shredded after you receive your end-of-year tax statements. And, be sure to shred all financial documents when you don’t want them anymore.