If one corner of your office looks…well, looks like it maybe once belonged to an office at some point, then on-site document shredding could be precisely what you’re looking for. Everyone’s encountered the lopsided stacks of paper, the long-dead electronics, and the boxes of miscellaneous desk stuff. It’s usually easy to spot since it takes up a lot of space.
What isn’t so easy to figure out is how best to get rid of it all. Throwing everything in the trash is the easy and obvious answer, but is it the best? Spoiler alert: it’s not, especially if what you’re discarding contains the personally identifiable information (PII) of any employees, clients, or other individuals. In that case, you don’t want the trash. You want a destruction company.
Why Would I Need to Destroy Anything?
Let’s assume two different scenarios for the same piece of paper. The paper in question is an old pay stub – nothing unusual, pretty standard. It has an employee’s name, address, account number, and payment record.
In scenario A, the paper is thrown in the public trash. It makes it about halfway to the dump when a breeze barrels over the top of the truck and rips the paper free. The paper ends up stuck against a fence, where it’s picked up by an individual. The person who finds it doesn’t have any use for it, but they know someone who will. Two days later, the employee whose information was on the paper discovers that someone’s bluffed their way into their private account.
In scenario B, the paper is physically destroyed by a private, professional document shredding company. It is directly transported from its old resting place in the office into the internal shredding mechanism of a shredding truck. The employee whose information was on the paper can even watch in person as the paper is cross-cut into tiny shreds. When the process is complete, the shreds are immediately taken to a trusted, local facility for recycling.
It’s not difficult to see that scenario B clearly provides a superior choice for document security. An on-site document shredding service drives directly to your location, collects and destroys the items you have for shredding, and provides you with a Certificate of Destruction that records what was destroyed and when.
What Can I Destroy With On-Site Document Shredding?
The short answer is: anything made of paper.
- Client records
- Pay stubs
- Outdated tax copies
- Private mail
- Contact information
- Meeting memos
You don’t even have to worry about removing staples, paper clips, or rubber bands. On-site shredding machines are powerful enough to churn through thousands of pounds of paper every hour, so a few small bits of metal won’t bother them (and all non-paper particles will be sorted out before recycling).
What About Electronics Like Hard Drives or Keyboards?
Good question! The short answer is that electronic shredding does exist, and, like paper shredding, is your best bet for information security, but hard drives can’t be destroyed right alongside your documents. At least, not usually.
It largely depends on the shredding company in question. Gator Shredding, for example, provides a specialized hard drive destruction service, along with an E-Cycling program. E-Cycling is a safe and responsible way to get rid of old electronics that may not have a memory system, like a keyboard, computer mouse, or old electronic wiring.
How Do I Get On-Site Shredding Service?
It’s as easy as picking up the phone! You tell us where and when you’d like us to arrive, set your documents for shredding aside, and we’ll handle the rest. If all you need is a one-time visit, we’ll collect and shred your documents, and that’ll be it.
If, however, your office regularly goes through large amounts of documents, a scheduled shredding service might be your best bet. It’ll still be on-site, so you’ll still be able to witness the shredding process if you so choose. You determine the frequency of service (weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly are a few of our most popular options) and where you’d like the truck to arrive. One of our uniformed technicians will take care of collecting and shredding your documents, so all you have to do is focus on your day.
If you’d like more information about secure, on-site document shredding, give us a call at (304) 488-8627. You can also reach out to us online or request a free quote on our website.