Today, the world produces more waste than ever, making recycling and reusing an integral part of our lives. This is where free document shredding comes in as a great way of promoting an environment-friendly movement. Free document shredding is conducted by community services that work towards reducing the carbon footprint of homes and offices in the town. Not just promoting a green movement, free document shredding also helps in safely discarding of bills and documents that confidential. Identity theft and fraud are commonly committed crimes and shredding documents for safe recycling is an excellent way to tackle this problem.
Community services usually offer free document shredding during most times of the year. Usually, if the weight of the documents is in large volumes, these services send across staff members who visit your home or office and collect the documents. However, some free document shredding services may set up centers in various locations such as a shopping center parking lots, Service halls, etc. The documents may be shredded in a mobile shredding vehicle or carried to a warehouse in secure containers before being shredded.
Before carrying out free document shredding, service providers lay down a few general rules that should be followed. Thus, understanding how you can prepare the documents before going ahead with shredding will save your time as well as that of the service provider:
Sort out – It is essential to understand that once a document is shredded, it cannot be put back together. Thus, it is absolutely important to understand which documents need to be saved and which have passed their retention dates. You do not want to be worrying about documents that were important and have turned to paper shreds, right?
Pull out anything other than paper – Many documents are bound by metal binders or hard supporting materials that cannot be shredded. Anything that is not paper supply has to be eliminated from the pile. Leaving paper binders will not only waste your time but can also disrupt the working of the document shredder. Also, it can be harmful to the person who is handling the shredding machine.
Other kinds of document shredding – While paper materials are most commonly shredded, today, free document shredding services also offer to shred documents held in the form of flash drives, tapes, CD’s, etc. Nevertheless, these kinds of materials have to be separated from documents in the form of paper as the mechanism through which they are shredded is different.
A little sorting and preparing documents will help in smooth document shredding.
Document shredding is essential, not only for offices but homes too. It enables one to safely get rid of bills and documents like that are confidential and can not be merely added to waste. Eliminating important but unwanted documents are not only essential to protect sensitive information but also keep your home and office organized.
If you are looking for free document shredding, there are several community services that provide the opportunity to destroy your confidential documents. Why do these community services provide free document shredding? The reason the service is provided for free is that the shredded paper is recycled and used for causes that benefit the society.
The process followed in free document shredding programs include the following:
Set a date – When you have enough documents to be shredded, all you have to do is pre-arrange a date for when you want the staff to visit your home or office.
Visit at your doorstep – The service provider comes to your home or office. This will depend on the number of documents that you wish to shred. In case, the documents are in lesser quantity, you may have to visit the community free document shredding service provider. These centers are usually placed in several parts of the town that include shopping centers, community centers or police stations.
Accumulated in a container – The community free document shredding service providers who accumulate the documents are trained to carry out collection safely to a mobile shredding vehicle or shredding center. The documents are then immediately shredded to an unrecognizable state. Most centers allow you to watch the process of document shredding.
Recycling – Once the paper is turned to shreds it is carried to warehouses. The waste paper is then converted to pulped cubes and recycled to be used again. Thus, this helps in the sustenance of the environment and effectively protecting your sensitive information.
There are several free document shredding services that also help by placing safe shredding containers in offices for regular disposal. The secure containers are placed at different sites in the office allowing employees to conveniently drop in documents when not required. This process is then carried out normally with where the waste is then collected and shredded at the document shredding site.
After the process of free document shredding, you or your company may be provided with a Certificate of Destruction. What better way to support your green initiative? Right.