What are the Advantages of Both On-Site and Off-Site Shredding?

Shredding your confidential business documents is one of the single most important steps you can take to reduce the risk of a data breach. But the time it takes to feed documents through a shredding machine also has a significant impact on your productivity. Outsourcing your shredding needs to a professional vendor can help by enabling you to dispose of sensitive information in the most secure and efficient manner.

A number of professional shredding companies will offer the option of either on-site or off-site shredding. Knowing the advantages of each service can help you make the right choice for your next shredding project.

The Off-Site Shredding Process and its Advantages

Off-site shredding allows for confidential material to be securely collected within your office for a defined period of time until your service provider destroys it. Whole files-paper clips, staples and all-are easily disposed of without having to use and maintain a typical office shredder. Off-site shredding entails the following steps:

• Vendor places collection containers strategically throughout office
• Employees drop documents into containers
• Vendor empties containers on scheduled pickup day
• Vendor gives Certificate of Destruction to client
• Service technician transports materials to shredding plant
• Contents of security container are emptied into shredder
• Material is shredded into small, unreadable pieces
• Material is baled and shipped to paper recycler

In addition to enabling your employees to continue to focus on their core competencies, off-site shredding also eliminates the need to purchase and maintain shredding equipment. Because it offers such a convenient method for disposing of confidential documents, sensitive material is less likely to end up in trash receptacles where it can easily be compromised. Off-site shredding also offers the following benefits:

• Faster disposal of private information
• Lower electricity costs
• Material is shredded into smaller particles than offered by office shredding machines
• Environmentally-conscious disposal of shredded material

The On-Site Shredding Process and its Advantages

On-site shredding offers the same advantages as off-site shredding. Confidential documents are collected in the same secure fashion and all shredded material is recycled subsequent to destruction, and files are collected in much the same way-using secure collection containers-with a slight variation. Once the containers are filled, the following process takes place:

• On the scheduled pickup day, the service representative scans the bar code and records the fill level of each container
• The service representative empties each container
• Shredded material is brought to mobile shred truck
• A hydraulic lift raises container onto shred truck
• The hydraulic lift empties the container into the shredder
• Materials are shredded into small, unreadable pieces on your premises

Since the mobile shredding truck is equipped with a camera, you are able to witness the shredding process.

On-Site and Off-Site Shredding Offer Secure Ongoing or One-Time Disposal

Both on-site and off-site shredding can be used for either ongoing shredding or one-time purge projects. The service you choose is dependent on your budget, business requirements and personal preference. A reputable shredding company will consult with you to determine your disposal needs and recommend a legally compliant and cost-effective solution.

Records Management Center provides businesses throughout Augusta, Evans, Thomson, and Martinez, GA, and Aiken, SC and the Central Savannah River Area with shredding and destruction solutions for thorough final disposition of confidential business information. To find out more, please contact us by phone or fill in the form on this page.