If you’re sitting on the fence regarding purchasing a paper shredder, let me give you 10 good reasons why you need one. While some of these reasons may seem obvious, you may not be familiar with these others.
To begin with, I can attest to the fact that I personally use a shredder at my office and feel it is an important part of any company’s business operations. While shredders are often in abundance at the office, they can also be used to dispose of sensitive material (often in abundance) at home.
Here are 10 good reasons why you should use a paper shredder:
1. IT’S THE LAW
Confidential waste, such as medical records, salary details or personal address details, legally have to be disposed of correctly under the Data Protection Act. These documents should be shredded before being thrown out to ensure people’s data remains confidential. Federal laws such as FACTA (read more) and HIPAA (read more) require that certain types of material be shredded. Failure to do so can warrant some hefty fines and penalties.
2. TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM IDENTITY THEFT
Identity theft is becoming a common crime with criminals searching through rubbish bins to extract personal information about others. If someone got their hands on an individual’s address details for example they would find it much easier to apply for a credit card under their name.
3. YOU CAN SAVE TIME
Manually ripping or cutting documents can take a long time, not to mention the threat of paper cuts! Shredding documents is a quick and easy way to dispose of papers which are no longer needed.
4. IT MAKES RECYCLING EASIER
Most companies are keen to highlight their green credentials and recycling paper is one way for companies to show their clients and competitors that they care about the environment. Shredding documents makes recycling much easier as the shredded paper can simply be bagged up and taken to a recycling point or collected by a recycling company. A shredder, placed next to a desk or in a centralized location, makes disposal of paper documents easy. Because shredded paper is more compact than crumpled paper, fewer bag changes are required.
5. YOUR BUSINESS DATA WILL REMAIN CONFIDENTIAL
Businesses tend to document everything from meeting notes to staff details, future business developments to sales figures. Imagine if these got into the wrong hands? Shredding documents can give companies the peace of mind that people aren’t rifling through their waste paper to find out the future plans of a business.
6. YOU CAN AVOID CORPORATE ESPIONAGE
If a company has spent time and money researching a new product or service then this could be highly valuable to competitor companies. If a competitor got hold of confidential ideas or future product plans they could steal these and develop them themselves. This could result in a financial loss for the company who originally conducted the research.
7. YOU CAN SAVE ON STORAGE SPACE
Some companies might have papers and documents which are many years old and no longer needed but they’re not sure how to properly dispose of them. Paper can take up lots of space in an office, sitting on desks or in filing cabinets, so by shredding these, space can be freed up.
8. STACKS OF PAPER CAN CREATE A FIRE HAZARD
Having papers stacked around the office can create the perfect fuel to spread a fire. Shredding documents and then recycling them can ensure that companies only keep what’s necessary and remove the fire hazard that excess paper creates.
9. TO ENSURE CONSUMER TRUST
If a company shreds confidential documents with details about their customers and clients then they can increase the trust these people have in the company. By shredding documents and making sure clients and customers know this happens, they can be confident that their data is being treated securely and with respect.
10. TO KEEP EMPLOYEES HAPPY
Company bosses have access to and create confidential documents that directly affect their staff such as wage reviews, redundancy details, disciplinary information and salary scales. If an employee saw even a rough version of one of these documents about their salary or position in the company then this could cause suspicion and bad feeling to filter through the entire staff. Shredding potentially destructive information will ensure that companies don’t upset their employees unnecessarily.
I hope these 10 points have helped you understand just how important it is to use a paper shredder. At HomesFan™, we offer the Shredsy™ Portable Hand Paper Shredder.
Shred it and forget it!