Why Shred?
Document shredding has multifaceted advantages such as regulatory compliance, safeguarding your proprietary trade information, and protecting your clients and employees' privacy. You always reduce your legal exposure with the adaptation of smart document control and disposal policies. The utilization of a bonded and insured third party document destruction service is a cost effective and practical option which further supports your organizations’ commitment to regulatory compliance of safeguarding information in your possession.

Every day businesses generate and accumulate thousand of tons confidential papers and materials containing sensitive and confidential information. Should this information fall into the wrong hands it will severely impact your business. Any and all information related to your business is extremely valuable to your competitors and thieves. Regardless of the size of your business, you should have a document destruction program in place to safeguard your company’s vital information.

Information That Requires Destruction – EVERYTHING!
All businesses have customer lists, phone lists, price lists, sales statistics, drafts of bids and correspondence, and even memos containing information about business activity would interest any competitor. Every business is also entrusted with information that must be kept private. Employees and customers have the legal right to have this data protected. Without the proper safeguards, this information most often ends up in the dumpster where it is readily and legally available to anyone. Trash is considered by business espionage professionals as the single most available source of competitive and private information from the average business. Any establishment that discards private and proprietary data without the safeguard of destruction is liable for criminal and civil prosecution, as well as the costly loss of customers and productivity.

What to Shred
Documents should be shredded that contain any of the following information:

• Telephone numbers
• Drivers License numbers
• Passport Number
• Education
• Credit Card numbers
• Bank Account Address
• Social Security numbers
• Insurance Policy data
• Employment Information
• Debit Card numbers
• Brokerage account information

Documents to be shredded include:
• Legal Documents
• Medical Records
• Financial Statements
• Profit & Loss Statements
• Accounting
• Files/Records
• Organization Charts
• Personnel Files
• Payroll Records
• Audits/Survey's
• Market Research
• Bank Statements
• Tax Records
• Contracts
• X-Rays
• Client Lists/Files
• Receipts/Invoices
• Price/Inventory Lists
• Proposals and Quotes
• Canceled Checks
• Business Plans
• Photographs
• Presentations
• R&D Files/Data
• Computer Reports
• Credit Card Numbers
• New Product Information
• Executive Correspondence
• Obsolete
• Brochures/Stationery/Files

The Small Stuff Counts - Incidental Business Records.
Without a program to control it, the daily trash of every business contains information that could be harmful. This information is especially useful to competitors because it contains the details of current activities. Discarded daily records include phone messages, memos, Post-Its, employee “To Do” lists, misprinted forms, worksheets, drafts of bids and drafts of correspondence. All businesses suffer potential exposure due to the need to discard these incidental business records. The only means of minimizing the risk is to make sure such information is securely collected and destroyed.

Let’s face it, employees are busier today than ever. As a result of hectic schedules employees often compile a large overflowing collection of documents destined for the shredder during slower times. These documents and materials will often sit for days and in many cases weeks, accessible to all, before being destroyed. It can take an employee up to 2 hours to destroy their collection of documents and materials. With our free collection consoles your staff will simply place the material in and forget it. You receive the benefit of ensuring all materials are promptly destroyed and more importantly you have no loss in productivity from your staff.

Internal Personnel Should Not Be Responsible for Destroying Certain Information
Common sense dictates that payroll information and materials that involve labor relations or legal affairs should not be entrusted to lower level employees for destruction. Proprietary information, executive correspondence, and financial statements should be protected from them as well. Most former employees will seek work with a competitor. It has been established time and again, that employees often have the economic incentive to capitalize on their access to sensitive information. The only acceptable alternatives are to have the materials destroyed under the supervision of upper management or document shredding service.

Out Dated Records Should Be Destroyed On A Regular Schedule
The period of time that business records are stored should be determined by a retention schedule. No record should be kept longer than this retention period. Not adhering to a program of routinely destroying stored records can be negatively construed in the event of litigation or audit. The new Federal Rule 26 requires that, in the event of a lawsuit, each party provide all relevant records to the opposing counsel within 85 days of the defendant’s initial response. If either of the litigants does not fulfill this obligation, it will result in a summary finding against them. By destroying records according to a set schedule, a company appropriately limits the amount of materials it must search through to comply with this law. From a risk management perspective, the only acceptable method of discarding stored records is to destroy them by a method that ensures that the information is obliterated. Documenting the exact date that a record is destroyed is a prudent and recommended legal precaution.