5 Reasons Every Office Needs a Shredder

As competition between businesses grows and people in general become more concerned about protecting their personal information, it is of paramount importance for businesses and organizations to protect both sensitive internal information and sensitive information about their clients. Although more and more information is stored digitally on computer servers, important information that can compromise businesses and organizations is still widely available on paper. Throwing whole pieces of paper containing such information into trash receptacles exposes businesses and organizations to great risk. One way to address concerns about sensitive information falling into the wrong hands is to use a shredder.

There are numerous reasons why every office needs a shredder and being familiar with these reasons underscores the importance of a shredder to a modern workplace. Those responsible for buying equipment for an office should understand why shredders are important to offices in order to successfully purchase the right one. Buying the right shredder also requires that the consumer be familiar with the different options that are available when it comes to shredders. This knowledge is more likely to result in the purchase of a shredder that satisfies an office's document-shredding needs.

Shredders are important to have in offices because they help to protect important business information, cut costs, enable a business to manage its waste efficiently and in an environmentally-friendly way, and guard clients' privacy. Being familiar with how shredders benefit offices helps those responsible for buying office equipment understand why their offices need shredders.

The business world is competitive, and it is therefore important to protect business secrets. Even organizations that are unconcerned with profits often need to keep their documents safe from prying eyes. For this reason, it is important to shred some documents instead of disposing of them in the trash. Competitors and other unwanted information seekers can pick documents from the trash and use them how they please without fear of legal recourse. Powerful shredders are capable of destroying more than just paper. They can shred credit cards, identification cards, CDs, DVDs, and tape cassettes. Only by shredding disposable documents and other important materials can businesses and organization protect information that is vital to their operations.

Shredding documents is important to a business's or organization's security, and there are two options for handling this vital task. The first is to buy a shredder and the second is to hire a mobile shredding service. The former option tends to be less expensive than the latter, especially for businesses and organizations that have a significant amount of documents to shred. Shredders can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending upon their shredding capacities and other features. Most businesses and organizations also do not shred as many documents as they should, so they may not realize that purchasing a shredder is cost-effective solution to protecting important information. Moreover, the expenses that are associated with leaked information can be far greater than the cost of a shredder.

Waste management is a concern for every business and organization. Effectively disposing of waste keeps an office clean, orderly, and organized, all characteristics that it needs to be a productive environment. Shredding paper, even documents that do not contain sensitive information, helps reduce the volume of paper waste. This enables paper containers to hold more paper before someone needs to dispose them. In turn, this enhancement of paper waste management helps an office to run more efficiently.

Shredding paper also gives an office more options for how it can deal with its paper waste. Offices that ship items can use the shredded paper instead of Styrofoam to pad and protect those items. Shredded paper is also great for composting. Both practices are environmentally friendly, the first forgoing the use of non-biodegradable Styrofoam and the second contributing to the creation of more soil for plants. Offices also retain the option to recycle shredded paper if they so wish.

Although it may not apply to all businesses and organizations, many are legally bound to destroy certain documents to protect clients' privacy. Even where business and organizations are not legally obliged to destroy documents with sensitive information, many should do so anyway. It is important to protect the privacy of clients, so businesses and organizations should err on the side of caution and shred documents that could negatively affect the well-being of their clients if they fall into the wrong hands.