Paper Shredding Companies

Paper shredding companies meet a an increasingly important need in our world, providing services that many businesses urgently require. With laws regulating how confidential information must be disposed of, paper shredding companies provide a service that is often a better choice than trying to do your business shredding in-house.

One of many laws in the United States, the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 (FACTA), requires businesses to dispose of documents in the mandated ways or face fines that can range from $1,000 to $2,500 per individual record. Other federal and state laws address other segments of the economy, and of course many countries have such laws. Governments also shred documents regularly themselves. (The infamous Watergate situation in the Nixon era helped to birth the modern industry.)

It isn't just a matter of the law; with the numerous identity theft incidents every year, it only makes sense to be sure that all papers with important data are shredded to the highest standards. Shredding is also done to CDs, DVDs, and hard drives holding confidential data.

What types of businesses hire paper shredding services? Virtually every business needs this done, from large corporations to small businesses, from accounting firms to law firms, and of course medical firms, banks, credit card companies, and any business that generates papers with private customer information.

Paper shredding companies may provide their customers with securely locked bins, which employees deposit the papers into. This provides immediate protection. It also makes it easier for the employees to be sure the papers go where they should. Staples, paper clips, and the like are no problem.

Then typically a truck from the shredding service comes to collect the papers. This can be done on whatever schedule is needed, from daily to monthly or even less often. Mobile paper shredding services do the shredding right there on the spot in the truck, often while an employee of the customer business observes.

In other cases, the paper is removed from the site and taken to another location to be shredded. In this situation, the shredding can sometimes be observed via a closed circuit camera arrangement. Employees of the shredding firm may have special qualifications, and certainly there must be guarantees as to their reliability. Certificates of Destruction are provided which give the business legal documentation of the shredding that was done.

Paper shredding services work to high standards, so the end result is composed of tiny little pieces of irregularly shaped paper. It not something that could be put back together even with great care, the way simple home shredders' output might be. At the more secure end of the spectrum, it is not uncommon for one simple piece of paper to be turned into thousands of little bits.

There are different levels of security according to the shredding methods used. Some of the shredding technologies used are grinder, hammermill, pierce and tear, and others. The industry continues to evolve.

Typically the shredded bits are recycled into new paper products, but each paper shredding company makes its own arrangements. The shredded paper can become part of new eco-friendly office paper, it can be used in agriculture, and a variety of other uses are being found for it.

Another common question concerns cost. This varies among paper shredding companies. Some charge per-container flat fees, while others bill by the pound, by the time, or by other methods. In many cases, hiring such a service is less expensive for a business than doing the actual shredding itself would be.

With the increasing concerns over confidentiality of documents, and the environmental benefits of recycling the paper, paper shredding companies provide a real service that is only likely to increase in importance.