An insight into the post-collection process of confidential waste.
Why shred?
In 2015, 90% of large and 75% of small UK businesses experienced a data breach according to Government statistics. Keeping corporate confidential information secure isn’t something that should be taken lightly and should be considered a business necessity. Without an ongoing shredding service, your businesses reputation and financials are at constant risk from data breaches.
This article gives you an idea of the process Printwaste take to destroy your secure documententation.
How does the Printwaste shredding process work?
To keep things simple, the procedure is split into three core areas:
· the collection
· the shredding and
· the recycling of your confidential waste.
While the recycling process generally remains unchanged, the servicing element (collection and shredding) varies depending on the requirements of your business. Whether you’re looking fora weekly or one-off clearance you’ll receive the following options: On-site or Off-site shredding.
Off-site Shredding
• On a pre-arranged day to suit, the tied bags are collected and loaded onto our secure vehicle by one of our friendly BS7858security vetted operatives, being kept locked at all times to ensure maximum confidentiality.
•A full audit trail is used to track the full journey of your confidential shredding from collection to destruction.
• The bags are then transported directly to our high security facility where the material is shredded within 24 hours using dual-shred technology – shredded not once but twice!
• Once the shredding process is complete, a Certificate of Destruction is provided to the customer with the collection.
On-site Shredding
• Our on-site confidential shredding service enables you to witness the destruction of your documents on your own business premises. Within our specialist vehicle and under your direct supervisionour BS7858 security vetted operatives can destroy your confidential waste paper.
• A full audit trail is used to track the full journey of your confidential shredding from collection to destruction.
• Once the shredding process is complete, a Certificate of Destruction is provided to the customer with the collection.
How is the shredded material recycled?
• Upon arrival at the recycling facility, your shredded paper is baled and sent to a pulp mill(each weighing approximately ½ tonne).
• When received by the mill, each bale is tipped into what’s called a ‘hydropulper’. Here, detergents are mixed with warm water and swirled around to increase the purity. Metals are also removed using magnetic equipment and light contamination (e.g. plastic film or bags) float to the middle where they are caught up in a rope and pulled out.
• The outcome is that the paper forms into a ball of “mulch” (Papier-Mache like substance). This then goes through a series of filters, which depending on the classification of paper, may go through a cleaning process to remove any ink.
• The paper then passes through a series of hot rollers in order to be squashed and dried to a certain thickness.
• Finally, the long sheet of paper is then sold and cut to specific widths for re-manufacture into paper-based products such as notebooks, diaries and white paper.
With over 30 years of industry experience in secure confidential shredding, we truly understand the need and value of destroying your confidential paperwork.
If you’d like to know more about our shredding process and the option that would best suit your needs, contact us here.
