Debunking 5 Office Shredding Myths

Protecting information is crucial, which is why organizations need to be aware of the facts. A seemingly trivial misconception can cause mistakes that result in widespread consequences for your business, employees, and clients.

For this reason, this article will debunk some of the most common office shredding myths and misbeliefs flying around.

Myth 1 – It is more important to recycle papers:

There is no doubt that corporate recycling helps mitigate the damage to – and even improve – the environment. However, when you fail to shred expired documents, you are opening your company to many unfavorable consequences, such as lawsuits, non-compliance fines, and brand damage.

If you want to help the environment while also keeping your company and its stakeholders protected, you can always hire a green shredding service – one that engages in environmentally-friendly and sustainable shredding practices.

Your documents, once shredded, are transported to a reliable recycling facility to be pulped. This recycled paper is then used to produce numerous consumer and business products, including books, magazines, office paper, and tissue.

Myth 2 – Shredding is very time-consuming:

This isn’t a myth – if you shred your documents using an office shredder. On the other hand, professional shredders use sophisticated shredding techniques and equipment that get the job done in a small fraction of the time it would take an office shredder to perform the same task.

Furthermore, since a professional company is taking care of your shredding needs, you are free to focus on other areas of your business operation.

Myth 3 – I might need the documents in the future:

Although some documents need to be retained permanently, most can be discarded after a certain amount of time. A tax or accounting professional can help you determine the retention requirements for documents. Discard any documents that have reached their disposition date.

Myth 4 – Nobody will go through the trashcan:

Rummaging through corporate dumb might be an incomprehensible and a far-fetched possibility for you, but that is not the case for identity thieves looking to steal confidential information.

A shredding service places a shred-collection container at different points throughout your office premises. Entire files and documents – and even stationery items such as staplers and paper-clips – can be dumped into those containers.

Those containers will then be collected every day, month, week, or quarter, depending upon how much information needs to be shredded. This closed-loop shredding solution ensures that sensitive data never ends up in the wrong hands.

Myth 5 – I cannot afford professional shredding:

You might think that you are saving money by not hiring a professional shredding service, but you are actually losing money in terms of employee productivity and business revenue. Office shredding can take up a lot of time – time that your workers could have been spending focusing on your core operations and generating revenue.

Outsourcing not only helps you achieve an effective privacy-maintenance solution, but it also allows you to lower your overhead costs.

We hope that this article helped to improve your understanding of professional business shredding and its many benefits.