Why Shredding Yourself is Not a Good Idea

Buying a small shredder may seem cost-effective and convenient but we can prove to you that it is not here is why.

Reason 1: Time Requirement

Small shredders can only handle a few sheets of paper at a time.  Many of them can’t shred through staples and paper clips so you will also have to spend the time to prepare the documents by removing all those items.  Then based on how much you need to shred someone is going to be sitting at that shredder for hours feeding the documents in.  Don’t forget that they are going to have to do something with the shredded paper which adds even more time to the process.   Now think of what else they could be doing for your company.  They could be assisting customers to bring in more business or performing other office duties that benefit your company, like collecting outstanding accounts receivable.

What To Do:  Hire a professional shredding service that will provide secure containers, so all your staff has to do is deposit documents in these containers.  The only time your staff will be spending is a few seconds it takes to place the paper into the secure containers.

Reason 2: The Cost of Employee Time

You are paying an employee a salary or on an hourly basis to feed papers into a small shredder.  Since that will be the only thing they can do until all the documents are shredded, they can’t do other more meaningful and valuable tasks for your company. It is costing you a lot more money than you realize.

What To Do: Hire a document destruction company, they do all the work and all the shredding.  You will not be wasting any of your valuable employee’s time.

Reason 3: Unnecessary Document Preparation

Small office shredders have limited power and are unable to cut through many common paper fasteners such as staples, rubber bands, binder clips, paper clips, etc.  All of these items must be removed by hand before you can feed the paper into the personal shredder.  Think of how much time will be wasted by doing such a menial task.

What To Do: Commercial shredding services have industrial shredders that will cut through all these items so there is no wasted time preparing the documents to be destroyed.

Reason 4: Security Concerns

Do-it-yourself shredding lacks the necessary security protocols to protect confidential information.  Documents may not be protected properly.  They may be stacked in various locations in your office waiting to be destroyed. This is a risk of a data breach because they can be seen or taken by anyone coming into your office. A data breach can damage a firm’s reputation, cause a loss of customers, and can lead to the possibility of fines and sanctions.

What To Do: Security containers will be provided by a professional mobile shredding company so your papers will be protected at all times until they are destroyed.

Reason 5: You Need To Document Information Destruction

Privacy Laws require your company to have proof of destruction; to be compliant, that means you are required to have a log that your business files have been securely destroyed.  In-house shredding is often random and not logged properly if at all.   Without a record of destruction, you could be fined.

What To Do: Document destruction professionals will provide a Certificate of Destruction after every shredding service that will satisfy your proof of destruction requirement.

Reason 6: Small Shredders Are Not Durable

The shredders you buy at an office supply store are not made for heavy-duty office use.  They jam, overheat and break down often because they can’t handle the everyday document destruction needs of most companies.

What To Do:  When you hire a shredding service, they maintain their powerful industrial-grade equipment, so it is one less thing you have to worry about.

Reason 7:  A Large File Purge

It is time for a large file clean out or your company’s annual file purge is necessary.  That office shredder is not going to be able to handle it.

What To Do: The equipment used by professional mobile shredding services can destroy thousands of pounds of documents per hour.  They can destroy in minutes what will take you weeks to do with that small shredder.

Time Shred Services is a local onsite shredding service that provides document destruction to businesses and residents located in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Queens, Nassau County, Suffolk County, Westchester, New Jersey, and Southern Connecticut.  For more information give us a call.

By

James Dowse CSDS
Time Shred Services
(855) 85-SHRED (74733)