Celebrating Earth Day with Document Shredding

Celebrate and Invest

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans’ Day, and Thanksgiving Day are all examples of specially-designated days only celebrated by citizens of the USA. Earth Day is a unique, globally-recognized day that was implemented on April 22, 1970, and has continued as an annual event that is celebrated by one billion people in 193 countries worldwide. On Earth Day, no one needs to be excluded.

The focus of Earth Day is to both celebrate our planet and educate people everywhere about their responsibility to care for it properly. 2022’s official theme for Earth Day is Invest in Our Planet. While there are many opportunities to invest in the planet, one important way that affects us all—but is often overlooked—is proper document shredding.

The Benefits of Shredding

One major benefit of shredding is that it greatly reduces the risk that information on those documents will be seen by unauthorized eyes, stolen, or lost. As a business, this is important so that your company remains compliant with state and federal privacy laws, and that your company, staff, and clients stay protected.

Another major benefit that is often overlooked is that shredded paper can be recycled! Some key benefits of recycling shredded paper are that it:

• Keeps paper waste out of landfills, which pollutes and harms the environment as methane, a greenhouse gas, is released during the process of the paper biodegrading.
• Provides higher income levels, as jobs in the recycling industry typically pay better than landfill or waste incineration jobs.
• Protects our forests and atmosphere and conserves energy by saving 17 trees, 9 barrels of oil, 650kWh of electricity, 60 pounds of air pollutants, and 7,000 gallons of water with every ton of paper recycled.
• Quality consumer and business products are regularly manufactured out of recycled paper, such as cardboard boxes, copy paper, catalogs and journals, paper towels, toilet paper, and many other products.

The Benefits of Hugging a Tree

By recycling your shredded paper and saving trees from being cut, you will be protecting our forests’ valuable—and in many cases, irreplaceable—resources. Forests support large and delicate ecosystems which are extremely important to humanity as the basis of many cultures, by providing medicines, food and enjoyment, and so much more.

Forests everywhere have been disappearing at alarming rates, but you can do something about it today. That alone is worth celebrating! Here are some facts from EarthDay.org to inspire you:

• As of 2020, worldwide forest cover has shrunk an average of 4.7 million hectares per year. From 2015-2020, 10 million hectares of trees were replaced by only 5 million individual replanted trees.
• Replacing one mature tree with a seedling isn’t sustainable because it takes 10-20 years for a tree to grow large enough to have a positive effect on the environment.
• 80% of the world’s terrestrial species find their home in the forest.
• Forests provide tens of millions of jobs, are an indispensable part of the global food chain, and crucially, more than 28,000 species of forest plants are used in human medicines.
• Forests regulate water cycles and soil quality.
• Increasing green cover in cities and towns by 10% can reduce the temperature by almost 4°F.
• Forest plants release phytoncides, antimicrobial compounds that are known to reduce stress, boost the immune system, and lower blood pressure and heart rate.

Benefits of a Choosing a Shredding Company

In many cities, it is difficult or impossible to recycle shredded paper through your office or home recycling program because the waste management companies are not equipped to handle it. Yet, placing unshredded documents in your blue box puts your business at a high risk of a data breach.

Many businesses have found that the wisest alternative is to partner with a reputable shredding company that offers secure paper shredding and works with a partner to recycle 100% of the shredded material. You will be protecting your business as well as the environment, the two major benefits of document shredding.

Records Management Center in Augusta, Georgia offers secure off-site shredding and 100% recycling of that shredded paper. To celebrate Earth Day year-round, simply give us a call at 706-724-7982 or complete the form on this page. We look forward to hearing from you!