What does it mean to be eco-friendly in the shredding industry?

What does it mean to be eco-friendly in the shredding industry? Here are some key signs you should look out for to establish whether a shredding company is taking environmental responsibilities seriously.

Certifications to look out for

Accreditations are probably one of the best things to look out for when trying to identify the environmental trustworthiness of a company. This is because certification bodies are, by design, unbiased. Certifications can provide a true reflection of a company’s inner workings and show you what is behind the face of the brand.

Two crucial certifications to look out for when choosing a shredding service supplier are:

ISO 14001 – This certification is the standard for environmental best practices. It applies to improving resource efficiency and waste reduction. Shredding companies should have their ISO 14001 certification incorporate the scope of EN15713 shredding standards. This will show the company has maintained environmental best practices without compromising on security.
CarbonNeutral® or another independently assessed carbon neutral certification – This shows that the company has reduced emissions in line with the CarbonNeutral protocol and for everything they couldn’t reduce they offset to net-zero.

At Shred Station we are proud to be both ISO 14001 and CarbonNeutral® certified. We have also received many awards for our environmental efforts including the highly prestigious International Green Apple Environment Award.

Environmental commitments that go above and beyond

As a bare minimum, shredding companies should be recycling all of the paper they shred. Here at Shred Station, we know that’s not enough.

As well as recycling all of the paper we shred, we also:

Have a strict Zero to Landfill policy for all materials we shred. We recycle everything we can and non-recyclable materials are used in energy from waste.
Have a solar-powered head office.
Operate a Euro 6 low emission fleet.
Are transitioning our company cars to hybrid or fully electric models.
Optimise our routes to reduce fuel emissions.
Assess our emissions each year, and have offset our emissions to net-zero every year since 2019. This has involved committing to several offsetting projects that meet the UN’s sustainable development goals.
Have planted trees across 6 continents.
Raise funds internally and externally for charities such as the Rainforest Trust UK.
Have a Shred a Tonne, Plant a Tree scheme that our customers can opt-in to. This has resulted in thousands of trees being planted local to our Norwich head office.

We even reuse our coffee machine waste as fertiliser!

A plan to further improve environmental commitments and reduce carbon

As the saying goes, “a rolling stone gathers no moss”. Continuous action from everyone, including companies, is essential to increase the chance of keeping global warming within the 1.5°C science suggests. As it turns out moss and algae is incredibly good for the environment due to their incredible ability to sequester carbon, so the saying is a bit redundant in this context. Nonetheless, continuous action is essential. Our carbon reduction plan outlines the measures we will be working towards in the coming months, including the start of our journey towards historic net-zero and eventually total carbon negativity.

All reputable companies in the waste disposal and shredding industry should be doing more to reduce carbon, so if your current shredding supplier isn’t, it may be time to start asking questions.

Or, if you’d rather use a shredding company that has already been taking its environmental commitments seriously for over a decade, why not get in touch today?

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