Why Shred?
Businesses have a legal and ethical responsibility to protect customer and employee personally identifiable information from falling into the wrong hands. Proper disposal of confidential documents will limit your liability in litigation and can play a large role in protecting your business and its proprietary information. It is what your customers expect you to do. Data breaches can be costly, not just financially, but to your company’s reputation as well.
What to Shred?
Having a “shred all paper” policy in your business is a proven way to help protect your business and allow your business to maintain compliance to the many laws and standards covering information security. Although the list is long, here are a few key types of information that should be shredded: banking information, social security numbers, payroll information, tax records, medical records, loan information, credit card receipts, checks, insurance information, invoices, etc. If you are not sure and it’s paper, your best bet is to shred it.
Isn’t Recycling Enough?
Recycling companies are not equipped to provide security. Simply recycling does not guarantee that confidential information is safe from roving eyes. Working with a document destruction company that does onsite shredding and is a paper recycler, provides a stricter chain of custody putting you and your customers at ease.
We Have a Shredder; Why Do We Need a Shredding Company?
Doing your own shredding is not nearly as secure or cost effective. Often, sensitive papers are sitting around or stacking up waiting for an employee to have the time to shred. Why pay an employee to sit at an office shredder when they can be doing much more productive tasks? Office shredders can be expensive, require maintenance and/or need frequent replacement. What could take you or your employees hours to shred using an office shredder would take an onsite document destruction truck only minutes. This saves time and money and provides you with a paper trail to demonstrate compliance.
Do I Need to Remove Staples and Paper Clips?
For most shredding companies, there is no need to remove staples, paper clips, rubber bands, file folders and even binder clips.
How Many Pounds of Paper Do I Have?
Some guidelines to follow for figuring out how much paper you have:
- A ream of paper weighs about five pounds.
- Standard letter-size file storage/banker box holds about 25-30 pounds.
- Standard copy letter paper size box holds about 30-35 pounds.
- Long letter size or legal size file storage box holds approximately 45-70 pounds.
- 13-gallon trash bag holds about 20-25 pounds.
- 33-gallon trash bag holds about 35-60 pounds.
What is the Most Secure Method of Document Destruction?
According to industry professionals, the most secure way to shred sensitive documents is to partner with a mobile, onsite document destruction company. The most current shredding equipment is efficient, state of the art and extremely safe and secure.
Who Should I Hire?
Outsourcing your shredding to a trusted, secure, onsite document destruction service provider is a cost effective and time saving way to ensure your business is protecting itself and its employees and customers from identity theft and fraud. Look for a shredding company that is affiliated with the National Association for Information Destruction which holds document destruction companies to the highest of standards. FBN
By Jen Green
Jen Green is president and CEO of Elevated Shredding, LLC, a document and data destruction company and paper/E-recycler; and Strides 2 Thrive, LLC, an agency providing day treatment and employment services for people with disabilities. To inquire about our services, call 928-522-9226, email jen@elevatedshredding.com or find us on the web @ www.ElevatedShredding.com.
