Paper shredding and recycling – good for security, good for the planet

Not only is shredding waste paper the best way to prevent printed documents falling into the wrong hands, it’s also an excellent way to care for the planet.

Every firm wants to guard against the loss of confidential data. And most firms also want to reduce their carbon footprint and do their bit for the environment. But did you know that paper shredding can help you do both?

People may be anxious to send paper to standard recycling channel in order to help the environment. But shredded paper is recycled too.

Once documents have been destroyed, the paper shreds are taken to a paper mill for recycling. The fibres of the shredded paper are separated, the paper pulp is screened, any ink is removed and finally the resultant pulp is mixed with fresh pulp to make new paper products.

Recycling paper has a host of benefits for the environment. It helps to save forests, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, cut energy consumption, conserve water and reduce landfill.

At Shred Station, we destroy an average of 1814 tonnes of waste paper every month, and all of it gets recycled. In the process, we save 30,838 trees a month – that’s an incredible 370,056 trees a year.

In fact, we have a ‘zero landfill’ policy across our company – even for things like metal, electronics and textiles. All the clothing we shred is used to make either Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) or Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF), which can be used in a range of industrial processes. We also carry out carbon offsetting, where we plant trees to offset the environmental impact of our work on behalf of clients.

Sometimes, it can be hard to determine which paper records should be shredded – that is, which are actually confidential data. Our best-practice recommendation is to adopt a ‘shred all’ policy for all office documents, so you simply shred everything when it’s no longer needed. That way, you prevent any possible data breach due to confidential information escaping the shredder, and you also save time that would otherwise be spent deciding what to shred and sorting documents into different batches.

There’s no need to worry about what can go in – our industrial shredders make short work of anything! Any type of paper is fine, from standard copier paper through to glossy magazines. Envelopes are fine too. In fact, we can deal with anything, including robust plastic folders and ring binders – so there’s no need to spend time sorting everything out or laboriously picking out staples.

Visit our site to learn more about our eco-friendly document destruction, or get in touch to learn more about our services.