Substrate destruction apparatus with shared rotating shaft

A substrate destruction apparatus for destruction of at least paper and optical discs, comprising:

• a housing;
• a paper receiving opening provided on the housing;
• a disc receiving opening provided on the housing in spaced apart relation from the paper receiving opening;
• a substrate destruction mechanism provided in the housing and comprising first and second rotatable shafts each provided with a plurality of cutter elements, the cutter elements being provided on the shafts such that the cutter elements on each shaft interleave with the cutter elements on the other shaft, the shafts and cutter elements being positioned such that paper fed through the paper receiving opening of the housing is fed between the shafts and the cutter elements;
• the substrate destruction mechanism further comprising an electrically powered motor for rotating the shafts, the shafts being rotatable by the motor in a paper shredding direction wherein the cutter elements shred the paper fed through the paper receiving opening;
• the substrate destruction mechanism further comprising a stationary structure, the stationary structure and the second shaft being positioned adjacent one another such that at least a portion of the cutter elements on the second shaft interleave with the stationary structure, the stationary structure and the second shaft and the cutter elements thereof being positioned such that an optical disc fed through the disc receiving opening is fed between at least the portion of the cutter elements of the second shaft and the stationary structure;
• and
• the second shaft being rotatable by the motor in a disc destruction direction opposite the paper shredding direction, thus at least damaging an optical disc fed through the disc receiving opening between the cutter elements and the stationary structure.