Which shredding services are best for medium and large businesses?

If your medium or large business is considering a new shredding service or changing suppliers, you might not yet be 100% sure what the best service is for you.

There are many different types of shredding services available. This can be overwhelming for the person or people responsible for confidential waste management. You want a secure service that doesn’t cost the earth and helps you to meet your sustainability goals. You also don’t want to be pressured into an up-sold service you don’t need.

We will break down the best shredding services for medium to large businesses and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

The best option for peace of mind and ease of service management: A regular on-site shredding service

For a medium/large business, a regular shredding service is almost always necessary. Even if your department doesn’t produce much paper waste, other departments will. For instance, accounts, HR, and legal departments might need multiple shredding bins, but the customer service and sales teams could share one. What you need depends entirely on the makeup of your organisation. A national shredding service provider will adapt services to your needs, so don’t feel pressured into a “one size fits all” service. There are companies, like Shred Station, that will create a bespoke offering tailored to your business.

Regular services will help your team stay on top of confidential paperwork. It provides the reassurance of knowing your confidential materials aren’t lingering or posing an ongoing data security. With regular services, your supplier will supply confidential waste bins, keeping your materials secure even before destruction.

A regular service can be arranged on a frequency to suit your site-specific requirements. For instance, if you have four offices and one is much larger than the other three, you may want shredding services more often at the larger office. For a national shredding service provider, this won’t be an issue. Your provider can even recommend the number of bins needed, but again, this choice is yours. It may be better for your company to have fewer cabinets serviced more frequently, or more cabinets serviced less frequently.

For ultimate peace of mind, on-site regular services are ideal. With on-site services, your representatives can witness the shredding take place onboard a shredding truck. This option provides the shortest chain of custody, so is generally considered the most secure option. You will also receive a Waste Transfer Note and Certificate of Destruction instantly with an on-site service.

For cost-effective and secure shredding services: A regular off-site shredding service.

A regular off-site service is also a good option and is still extremely secure. Materials will be transported in a locked, discreetly branded vehicle driven by security-vetted operatives. Our trucks are all equipped with GPS tracking, telematics tracking, four-camera CCTV systems and many more security features that keep your documents safe during transport. Reputable shredding service suppliers will operate in line with EN 15713 standards and will destroy materials within 24 hours of arrival at their destruction facilities. At Shred Station, we destroy materials immediately upon arrival.

The main advantages of an off-site service are that they are cheaper than on-site services and are less interruptive for companies with limited parking/loading. Without having to shred on-site, the time spent at your premises will be very short. The only real downside of an off-site service is that your personnel will not be able to witness the shredding. There is also a little more administration involved when the materials arrive back at the supplier’s destruction centre. For this reason, your Certificate of Destruction may take a little longer to come through.

Other services that your medium-large business may need

For the occasional non-paper requirement: Ad-hoc shredding

Most medium-large businesses will have other materials to shred aside from paper. With industrial shredding equipment, national providers can destroy things like hard drives, CDs, tapes, USBs, old uniforms, products and more. You may not require a regular service for these items. Instead, an ad-hoc service is a great solution. It means, as and when you need, you can add containers of other materials to your next collection. Please note that you will need to inform your service provider that you have additional items to destroy and will have to keep these items separated from paper. This is because additional devices or materials are priced and recycled differently.

For one-off additional requirements, e.g. an office move: One-off shredding

If your business has any singular requirements, a one-off service can be organised in addition to your regular services. These can be conducted on-site or off-site to suit you. Typically, our regular customers would book a one-off service for things like office moves or annual archive storage clear-outs. However, we also perform one-off services for occasions such as new company uniforms being issued, creating a need to securely destroy the old uniforms.

If you still have questions about what service is right for you, please feel free to get in touch with our team. Our experts can assist with any queries and recommend a solution.

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