Everything You Need to Know about Document Shredding

Document shredding is pretty straightforward, right? Actually, you’d be surprised—there’s more to it than you think. Here’s everything you need to know:

Document Shredding Eases Office Space Constraints

Decluttering helps foster a productive workplace. Routine shredding of outdated documents is an excellent way to declutter your office and foster an efficient and stress-free work environment.

In-House Shredding is Time Consuming and Expensive

When office shredders first came on the scene, consumers hailed them as identity theft and business fraud prevention cure-alls. But the luster of in-house shredding has since worn thin. Office shredders are slow and unreliable. Plus, when you consider employee wages and benefits, then factor in depreciation and maintenance costs on the equipment, it costs about $120 per month to operate an office shredder. That’s almost twice as much as a professional shredding service.

Professional paper shredding eliminates time-consuming and expensive in-house document disposal tasks. Secure, barcoded collection containers are brought to your office free of charge. Your employees deposit unwanted paperwork into the containers without having to remove staples, paperclips or sticky notes. When the containers are full, a uniformed and background-screened service representative scans each bar code and records the container’s fill level. Then your documents are shredded on-site with a mobile shredding vehicle or transported to off-site to a shredding plant for destruction.

Secure Document Shredding Helps Prevent Identity Theft

Document shredding protects your employees and customers from identity theft by keeping their personal information out of the trash. A scheduled shredding service takes identity theft prevention to an even higher level. Your documents are collected and handled with a strict chain of custody and based on your preference, destroyed on-site at your business or off-site at a shredding plant.

Document Shredding Facilitates Privacy Law Compliance

Document shredding, done the right way, keeps your business out of legal trouble. The following federal and state laws mandate that businesses must verify their information destruction processes:

• HIPAA
• FACTA
• SOX
• GLBA
• GA Senate Bill 425

Failure to comply with these regulations can result in fines and penalties. When a professional shredding service provider destroys your documents, you receive a Certificate of Destruction noting the time, date, and method of destruction in order to prove your compliance.

Document Shredding Helps Protect Planet Earth

The benefits of document shredding don’t stop at your business. A shredding service also helps protect our planet. After your documents are shredded into small, unusable pieces, they’re baled and transported to a paper recycling plant. There, your shredded paper is pulped and used to produce a wide range of paper products.

For more document shredding tips and advice, please contact us by phone or complete the form on this page.

Records Management Center provides businesses throughout Augusta, Evans, Thomson, Martinez, GA, Aiken, SC, as well as the Central Savannah River Area, with professional shredding and destruction solutions.