Why Shred At All?

In our modern go go lifestyle, it’s often easy to forget about the little things – like weather or not we shred our waste. There are still some people who believe that they don’t need to shred anything at all, or that the same thing can be achieved with a pair of scissors or a thick black bin bag. But there are a few things you should know about shredding, and why it’s an essential business practice for every industry. 

It’s The Law

Before we go into the more beneficial reasons for business shredding, first and foremost you should do it because it’s the law. Under the Data Protection Act, every business is under legal obligation to protect the confidential information of its customers and employees. A sub clause of this law states that organisations must routinely employ a data destruction service to destroy redundant confidential information held in any format.  As an added incentive, the Information Commissioner’s Office can now fine your business up to £500,000 if they loose an individual’s confidential information.

Time And Profits

If you’ve decided you probably need to shred some stuff, your next step is actually doing it. This is where services like our confidential document shredding come in handy. Let’s look at 2 situations, do you:

1. A) Take one of your employees away from their day to day job for a few days each month and have them removing staples, paperclips and sort card from paper before standing over a shredder for hours on end?
2. B) Make a phone call to a certified shredder, who will come to your office, collect your documentation and shred it for you?

You picked B, didn’t you? Our industrial shredders can process the same amount of paper that would take your employees 8 hours in just minutes, with no need to spend time removing pesky staples. So would you rather your well paid staff were doing their jobs and earning you more revenue, or wasting time picking up staples?

Good Old Fashioned Common Sense

No matter what business you’re in, you will store confidential information. Just everyday activities like creating invoices, providing your service or just writing up meeting notes creates a huge amount of data that anyone could use against you. Just think about how disastrous it would be if your competitors got hold of your customer lists or quotes, or if a criminal found your financial documents or employee records. All it takes is one smart criminal or one disgruntled employee and your business is at risk. Routinely shredding sensitive documents and data will prevent these kinds of danger 

Save The Earth

Of course, we couldn’t talk about shredding without mentioning how great it is for the environment. When you have your employees shred your documents, what do you do with it afterwards? Our bet is that you throw it away.  But with a certified shredder, we put your destroyed documents to good use and recycle the waste. For every 1 ton of paper recycled, you can save 7000 gallons of water, between 17 and 31 trees, 4000 KWh of electricity and prevent 60 pounds of airborne pollutants from being released into the atmosphere.

So if you weren’t shredding before, hopefully you will be now! Not only is shredding a legal requirement, but it also has some great hidden benefits for your productivity and environmental footprint as well. For your free consultation to discuss your shredding solutions, just get in touch.