Generally, when people think about shredding, they think about it from a security point of view. And that makes sense, because shredding ensures documents are destroyed and rendered unreadable.
1. Saving our trees
As children, we learn the amazing fact that paper is made from trees. But the older we get, the more we hear about the negative side of this – that whole forests are destroyed in aid of giving us something to write on. And not only does this destruction make animals homeless, it also affects everything from air quality to global warming. By shredding your documents with us, you start them on their way to transforming back into new paper, ready to be used all over again. This is because, after shredding your confidential waste, we send it off to be recycled. Doing so provides an eco-friendly alternative to chopping down further trees and damaging the environment. And, guess what, paper can be recycled up to 7 times – so that’s a whole lot of trees you’re helping! In fact, for every 500 sheets of recycled paper you can help save 7.5kg of wood
2. Keeping our air clean
While we’re on the subject of trees, the process of creating paper out of them isn’t exactly good for us or the environment either. As you can imagine, turning raw wood into, say, an A4 notebook isn’t just done by magic. It involves a lot of potentially toxic chemicals, such as carbon monoxide and ammonia, which can be released into the air during production. Not good for our lungs or the planet. In comparison, when your shredded documents go to a recycling plant, they will be turned back into paper in a much more responsible and eco-friendly way; a little known fact is that recycled paper generally uses 53% less carbon dioxide as opposed to producing virgin (new) paper.
3. Avoiding landfill
For a long time, we humans have been throwing everything we no longer need into our rubbish bins. And that waste has been on a one-way ticket to landfill. So, it is unsurprising that all of the landfill sites are now filling up. More importantly, these sites are causing a huge amount of harm to the environment (and us), from emitting greenhouse gases to leaking toxic substances into the earth, and so much more beyond that. By getting Printwaste to shred your documents, rather than just throwing them in the bin, not only will you ensure a secure disposal (data destruction) of your confidential data but you’re avoiding landfill and all its damaging effects – helping to create new and environmentally-friendly products in the process.
At Printwaste, when we think about shredding, we, of course, always think about it as a way of keeping sensitive and confidential data safe. But we also think about it in terms of the planet, and keeping that safe too. Hopefully, having read this article, you will look at shredding a little differently as well – and see that, for all of us, it’s a safety mechanism in more ways than one.
For more information on our confidential shredding services, click here, or get in touch on 01242 588600 or at sales@printwaste.co.ukand we’ll be happy to chat it all through.
