One Size Really Does Not Fit All, When It Comes To Shredding That Is...

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By JoEllen Barton, Securshred. August 2013.

There are so many shredding companies out there that it becomes hard to tell the good ones apart from the inadequate ones. Many offer curb side shredding and recycling. At a distance everything looks fine, their equipment impressive. You feel secure by watching their shredding process happening in your parking lot – but what comes out the other end as a final product could spell disaster for you.

Just because a company has “shred or shredding” in its name does not mean they will meet all your legal requirements or company expectations.

When hiring a secure shredding company to provide a shredding and recycling solution for your business, it is really important to have an understanding of what exactly goes into their shredding process.

Simply put, when it comes to shredding documents, one size does not always fit all.

There are a variety of cut methods that you should be aware of; pulverizers, strip shredders, crosscut, hammermill, and pierce and tear.

With Pulverizers, and Hammermill’s, screens are utilized to control the shred size.  But even then, not all hammermills or pulverizers are created equal. This is where screen size comes into the process. A screen, very simply, is a filter that a destroyed final product must pass through. The shredded paper cannot exceed a certain size.

There are many assumptions that you have to make when you utilize a shredding company that is not NAID certified.  Shred size and screen sizes are just a couple of them.  Rather than having to hope you haven’t missed the details, or if the shredder has changed its screen sizes (or even removed the screen) on you to speed up the process in the parking lot, NAID AAA Certification verification can alleviate the need to do all the checking yourself.

Random inspections from NAID of the shredding company removes your due diligence requirements (and yes, due diligence of these items are required by law).

Other due diligence items should include:

  • Recent background checks on all employees
  • Written policies and procedures
  • Proper insurance
  • Business associate agreements when handling Protected Health Information
  • Proper security around the handling and storage the shredded material

Just to name a few.

SecurShred is AAA NAID Certified and adheres to its strict standards. We have been continuously certified since 2003 for the destruction and recycling of paper.  Over the years, we’ve added other certified endorsements for hard drives and non-paper media, as well as, adding mobile and plant-based options for these certified services. SecurShred was the first NAID Certified company in Vermont.

In addition, once documents are shredded, we make sure they don’t leave our sight-they are stored and transported under high security and video surveillance until they are ultimately transported to a paper mill where they are remade into tissue products.

Everything we do when shredding documents works to guarantee that your information stays safe. Careless shredding opens up the opportunity for identity theft. At SecurShred we are confident that everything we do guarantees the integrity of your sensitive documents and data.

Our professionals have been trained to help your company create and implement a secure document destruction process. For more information about how your company can benefit from our services, contact our Security Professionals at 1-877-863-3003 for a free consultation today.