Paper Shredding Services

Many companies outsource their paper shredding to paper shredding services. There are several types of services available, and a wide array of companies that do it.

Shredding your own paper and other materials can be time consuming, requires specialized equipment, and the equipment needs maintenance. For a smaller organization having one or more office paper shredders may work just fine, but for a larger organization using an outside paper shredding service may make sense.

It may also make sense for a smaller company that suddenly finds it has a large amount of shredding to do, for example a law or accounting firm that is moving and has decades of paperwork it no longer needs and is not required to keep. One organization I was affiliated with had literally tons of documents to dispose of when a senior partner retired. Although a few of the documents needed to be retained, the majority did not, and it would have literally taken weeks if not months for employees to shred the decades of documents themselves! They chose a mobile shredding service, described below.

Types of services include:

Onsite Shredding Services: With onsite shredding services, the material will never leave your facility until it is already shredded. This is an option for larger organizations, and often entails having an employee of the shredding company and a shredder of theirs onsite full time. Often the term "mobile shredding" is used synonymously, so make sure you understand exactly how the terms are used.

Offsite Shredding Services: With offsite shredding services, periodically someone will show up and remove all your material to be shredded. It will be transported to their location and then shredded. These services tend to be the most cost effective, as often a much heavier duty and faster shredder is available at the company's location. Questions to ask include "Do they provide locked containers for material to be shredded?" and "are the containers locked until the actual shredding occurs?" Some companies will also provide a "document of destruction" or similar.

Mobile Shredding Services: Mobile shredding services involve having a mobile shredding unit, usually a shredding truck, come to your location and shred your materials. This may be on a scheduled basis, for example weekly, or it may be very occasionally when a "purge" of materials occurs.

Much of the paper and other materials you are having shredded may have company proprietary information, personally identifiable information (PII), and perhaps even classified information. You will need to work with your information security department to make sure it is an appropriate solution, insure that your proposed solution will pass audit, and make sure it follows any laws that may apply.

Paper shredding services can be convenient and cost effective. Just make sure you pick one that is appropriate for you and your needs.