:: Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Shred-it?
Established in 1988, Shred-it is the world's leading on site document shredding and recycling company. We provide secure, convenient and cost-effective document destruction to more than 150,000 clients around the world through our 140 branches on five continents.
Who is Securit?
Securit is an international information security company that has a number of integrated service offerings, including
records management,
data protection and
document destruction.
Does Shred-it conduct background checks on its employees?
Yes. All of our Customer Service Representatives undergo background checks and are security-screened and insured.
What type of shredding do you do?
Our shredders utilize a cross-cut shredding process, reducing paper to crisscross cut pieces of confetti. These crisscross pieces of paper are cut to approximately 5/8�?, which provides far greater security than conventional strip-cut shredders.
What constitutes confidential or R&D information?
All businesses produce sensitive information which would be of interest to any competitor.
Some examples of this material include:
- Customer lists
- Sales statistics
- Financial records
- Payroll records
- Personnel files
- Legal documents
- Cancelled checks
- Account records
- Computer printouts
- Medical records
- Advertising misprints
- Correspondence and memos
- Tax records
- Invoices
- Price lists
- Inventory lists
- Outdated business records
- New product proposals
- information
- Credit card receipts
- Competitive information
How is the material stored?
We provide locked office-quality consoles free of charge. These consoles are located strategically throughout your office. The material is contained in specially designed bags within these consoles, and only the designated contact within your organization has a key to access these consoles.
Do I need to sort the paper?
No. Our professional employees are trained to quickly and accurately shred the material. Also, you do not need to remove paper clips, staples or binder clips.
Is the shredding process secure?
Yes. All shredding takes place in a secured, caged environment within the truck. The contents of the console are placed directly into the shredder, with no transfer of material taking place before the shredding process.
How can I be guaranteed that my sensitive documents have been completely destroyed?
At the end of every shred, a Certificate of Destruction is issued to every client assuring them that their materials have been completely destroyed. We also invite you or another representative of your organization to come out to the truck to witness the shredding process, if desired.
What happens to the paper after it has been shredded?
The destroyed documents, in the form of confetti-sized pieces, are transferred to a recycling facility, where they return to the marketplace in the form of items such as recycled household paper products.
How often do you come to shred?
This depends on the individual organization and the amount of sensitive information they produce, and will be determined prior to service by your organization and your Shred-it Sales Representative. You may require shredding every day, once a week, once a month, or once a year. And if your service needs ever change, your frequency can be modified to meet your requirements.
What happens if our container is full before the regularly scheduled service time?
Just call us and we would be happy to schedule an extra pick-up. Also, if you find that you are filling your consoles before the next service date on a regular basis, we can provide you with additional consoles or an increased service frequency in order to maintain security and simplify your life.
When do I receive my invoice?
The invoice is presented to you immediately following each shred.
We use a recycler for our documents so why would I need a shredding service?
Recycling services are not designed to provide security. Your material is transported in its entirety, so if an accident should occur, your confidential information is open to everyone. If environmental responsibility is a concern for you, Shred-it recycles your documents after they are destroyed.
How am I able to determine our environmental contribution?
Shred-it is an environmentally conscious company that takes recycling very seriously. We provide all of our automatic clients with an Environmental Certificate each year indicating the number of trees their business saved as a result of the shredding service.
We have an in-house office shredder so why would I need your service?
It is much more cost-effective to deal with Shred-it. Amortization of a shredder, as well as labor, maintenance and disposal costs are usually much higher than expected - not to mention the noise, mess and dust produced by an office shredder and the fact that employees need to separate paper, remove paper clips and staples, etc. In fact, we can guarantee a minimum 25% savings when compared to the cost of using your in-house shredder.
We store our records so why do we need a shredding service?
The period of time that business records are stored should be determined by a retention schedule that takes into consideration the records’ usefulness to the business as well as legal requirements. From a risk management perspective, once this period has passed, the only acceptable way of discarding these records is to destroy them using a method that ensures complete destruction. Oftentimes, documenting the exact date and method used for destruction is not only prudent but a legal requirement.
What size jobs do you accept?
There is no job too big or too small. We service everything from small offices to major international organizations.
Do you shred residential or home office documents?
Shred-it is pleased to offer shredding for home office use within local bylaws and community restrictions. We also offer an occasional "Community Shred" program where a shredding truck parks in a central location and shreds personal documents without charge.
I have offices in several locations; can you provide service to those locations as well?
Servicing clients on five continents, our dedicated Major Accounts Program offers centralized management of your destruction services - no matter where your other offices are located.
What if I only need to use your service one time or for annual clean-ups?
No problem. Whatever your requirements, from daily activity to annual purges, we are happy to meet your needs.
Why is on site shredding better than off site?
Once your documents leave your location, you can never be sure what actually happens to them, or who may see or have access to them. A lot can happen from the time documents leave your location until they reach their final destination. When material is shredded on site by Shred-it, you can be sure that the material has been securely destroyed.
Do you educate employees on legislative policies and procedures?
Yes. Shred-it maintains an in-house training department that is responsible for training our staff in all aspects of our business. In addition, we produce and distribute both newsletters and electronic aids that help keep our staff abreast of recent changes in legislation. We also produce a newsletter for our clients to help them stay on top of these issues.
How often do your employees undergo training?
Comprehensive training is conducted both in a Head Office setting and in the field. The combination of these two processes means that we are training our staff on new aspects of our business on an ongoing basis.
