In-house Paper Shredding vs Outsourced Document Destruction: Which is Best for Your Business?

With fraud and identity theft on the rise, document shredding is more important than ever. However, before you use a do-it-yourself approach to destroying information, you may want to think twice. In-house shredding comes with costs and risks that could negatively affect your business. Here, we discuss the three main problems with shredding your own documents.

1.) In-house shredding is risky. Most staff members are too busy to make their way over to the office shredder. Instead, confidential documents end up piling up in storage rooms, garbage and recycling bins, and are left lying around the office. This is a data breach waiting to happen.  The reality is that in-house on-site shredding often does not get done, and when it does, paper can be easily pieced back together, if tried. 

2.) Cost of shredding. An office shredder is a financial drain that requires ongoing maintenance repair costs and replacement fees if a part goes missing. Additionally, employees need to take time from their work to shred documents. If a data breach does occur, this can cost your organization thousands of dollars, not to mention the reputational damage associated with a breach.

3.) No certificate of destruction.  Many businesses choose to take shredding in-house because they are under the impression that this method is just as effective. Yet, the reality is that doing this yourself, can put your organization at risk of a data breach. When you take this service in-house, you need to make the time to create and implement a document destruction policy. Additionally, if your business operates within a regulated industry (which most do), than you need to show proof that you have safely destroyed documents. Outsourcing this service with a professional shredding company will provide you with a legitimate certificate of destruction providing you with peace of mind. A certificate of destruction is essential if a business is asked to provide evidence that their confidential information was securely destroyed. You cannot get this in-house.

If you haven’t noticed, there is a strong return on investment if you decide to work with a professional shredding service company. You are given a certificate of destruction that provides the evidence that confidential information was securely destroyed. You are also given peace of mind knowing that your confidential documents have been disposed of. And you ultimately save money in the long run knowing that you have taken the proper steps to ensure that fraud and identity theft does not occur.

To learn more about how Shred-it can help protect your documents, please contact us to get a free quote and security risk assessment.