A pile of bills with a person holding a sign above it that reads "Hidden Costs"Starting an in-house shredding program seems easy enough—just a matter of running to the office supply store and purchasing some paper shredding machines. But this represents a mere fraction of the expenses and risks of in-house shredding. In this blog, we uncover the hidden costs of shredding your documents in-house.

Equipment Maintenance

Buying an office shredder isn’t a one-time cost. Paper shredders are cheap and can’t withstand heavy use. As a result, maintenance issues are common: shredders jam, blades become dull, and dust and debris clog the machine. Non-paper items like staples and paperclips can cause permanent damage. As a result, shredder repair and replacement costs skyrocket beyond the initial purchase price.

Labor

In-house shredding is a huge time commitment. Consider the steps it takes to destroy a file:

  1. Remove paperclips, staples, sticky notes, cardstock and file folder or binder
  2. Separate the document into easily-shredded portions
  3. Feed the paper into the shredder
  4. Empty the shredding receptacle
  5. Clean up spilled bits of shredded material
  6. Toss the bag of shredded paper in the dumpster

With the resulting labor costs and lost productivity, your company loses money each time you shred documents.

Electricity

In-house shredding increases your energy consumption costs. A professional shredding service eliminates electricity-consuming office shredders. Secure collection containers replace your paper shredding machines. Therefore, reducing your kilowatt-per-hour rate and the cost of your electricity bill.

Compliance

Several federal regulations impose stiff penalties against companies that fail to protect consumer information:

  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
  • Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA)
  • Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
  • Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
  • Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)

In-house shredding doesn’t match the security and disposal verification standards of outsourced document destruction. Once your documents have been professionally shredded, you receive a Certificate of Destruction verifying your compliance with federal privacy laws.

Data Breach Exposure

Employee error and negligence are prime causes of corporate data breaches. In-house shredding is prone to mistakes that can lead to the compromise of confidential information. Especially if employees forget to shred sensitive documents or accidentally toss confidential paperwork in a trash or recycling bin. Firstly, a professional shredding service eliminates in-house shredding errors. Secondly it streamlines document disposal.

Now you know the true costs of in-house shredding. Additionally, how a secure shredding service can replace it with an affordable and secure document destruction solution.

Richards & Richards offers NAID AAA Certified document shredding and media destruction services for businesses throughout Nashville. For more information about our shredding services, please call us at 615-242-9600 or complete the form on this page.