A pay-per-use shredding system for public use for destroying documents and media containing private or personal information. The system includes a shredder, a feed chute for receiving material and an outlet feeding the material to the shredder inlet, and a storage bin below the shredder outlet to receive shredded materials. A portal provides a line of sight to the interior of the storage bin for user visual confirmation of destruction. The system further includes a payment receipt mechanism, such as a keypad, a card receptor, or a bill or coin receptor. A controller acts to validate and/or authenticate payment at the receipt mechanism and to determine a shred time period. The controller operates the shredder for the shred time period, such as in response to a start instruction from the user via a start button. A display is decremented to show the remaining shred time to the user.