May 25, 2021
The Cost of Shredding: Do You Know What You’re Paying For?
For most companies, pricing is a key consideration when planning for secure document and hard drive destruction. However, it’s also important to look beyond just price when choosing a partner.
Partnering with an organization that offers secure, cost-effective services that are flexible to meet your secure information destruction needs can give you peace of mind that your confidential information is protected. There are multiple types of services to consider, depending on the frequency you generate confidential documents and the urgency in which you need your items securely destroyed.
A regularly scheduled paper shredding service is designed for companies that consistently generate large volumes of paper that need to be shredded. Licensed and screened drivers arrive at specific times to pick up and shred documents—either off-site or through our mobile shredding services. With our Shred-it information security service, we offer a no-cost risk assessment to uncover possible information security vulnerabilities, provide lockable containers where staff can securely dispose of paper, offer complimentary workplace privacy policies, and more.
A one-time shredding service allows a company to purge excess paper. It’s ideal for organizations cleaning out old files, transitioning to a digital-first strategy, moving, or returning employees to the office after COVID-19. On the scheduled date, a Shred-it professional will collect all your confidential documents and ensure they are destroyed, either on-site in a mobile shredding truck or at one of our secure shredding facilities. Depending on the urgency, express and priority options are available to ensure shredding happens quickly when needed.
With drop-off shredding, you can bring secure documents to any one of our many locations across the country for shredding. Drop-off shredding is ideal for remote workers and individuals who may have old files, notes, documents, and other confidential information in the office or home workspace, even in smaller volumes. For those with a busy schedule, you may also choose to prepay online and drop off documents at your convenience.
Hard drive destruction takes care of any old or outdated equipment that is no longer needed. There is a common misconception that once data or information has been wiped from a hard drive, that information no longer exists. This is not true. Used hard drives and mobile devices that have been wiped may still contain residual information, thus exposing the former owner, organization, or customer base to a data breach. Consider partnering with a secure information destruction professional like Shred-it that fully destroys these items using shearing and crushing technology that renders the data unrecoverable—the only way to be certain they don’t present a security risk. As with paper shredding, you can choose to have hard drives destroyed during regularly scheduled sessions or as part of a one-time event.
Media destruction allows you to dispose of everything from USB devices, old CD‑ROMs and DVDs to magnetic back-up tapes and floppy disks, ensuring that confidential information remains secure – no matter the format.
Specialty shredding services handle any materials that could present a brand risk, such as promotional items, training binders, old employee badges, and more.
Consider the Following Before Choosing a Document Shredding Company
When you work with a secure information destruction expert, you should expect more than just shredded documents, you should have a partner you can trust to handle your most sensitive information.
- A secure chain of control. Tamper-proof containers preserve information security, and locked trucks and secure totes keep documents safe in transit. Our fleets are GPS-tracked, so we always know where your information is. Secure, monitored facilities ensure information stays safe until it is fully destroyed.
- Best-in-industry staff. Shred-it drivers and technicians undergo a thorough screening process that exceeds the typical standards. We never outsource drivers and service technicians, so you always know it’s our trusted staff who are coming to your facility and disposing of your documents.
- Protocols that exceed National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) requirements. We are NAID AAA certified, meaning we are compliant with all known data protection laws. To receive this designation, we undergo scheduled and surprise audits, conducted by trained, accredited security professionals. When you receive our Certificate of Destruction, you can be sure your material is completely destroyed using the latest methods.
- A commitment to the environment. Our prices reflect our efforts to meet environmental standards in our business practices, as well as continuously improve and invest back into our facilities, fleet, and technology in order to bring you a service you can not only trust, but also be proud of. We recycle the paper we shred, so you can feel good about how your confidential information is being disposed of. In 2020 alone we shredded and recycled 1.1 billion pounds of paper, equal to nearly 1 million trees saved. Our trucks are also energy efficient, and our 65- and 95-gallon Shred-it bins are molded from 100% recycled HDPE plastic, underscoring our passion for being green.
As with any service where trust, reliability, and exemplary customer care are critical, it’s wise to assess the value that a shredding company provides and make sure you can see a strong ROI.
Cost of Shredding with Shred-it
To be able to accommodate the needs of both large and small organizations, as well as individuals, Shred-it follows a standard pricing model for most of our services.
Shred-it's Standard Pricing
We typically charge a flat fee that can range from around $75 to $275, depending on a variety of factors including your location, the type of service you’re requesting, and the volume of your order. The shredding fee covers a minimum number of boxes of paper or hard drives. If you have more than the minimum number, there is a per box/per hard drive rate that fluctuates based on the number and volume of items. So, for example, the more boxes a facility wants to destroy, the lower the per-box price. Media destruction and specialty shredding have more customized pricing models, depending on the materials involved.
Shred-it provides top-notch services at cost-effective prices. We stand behind our work, guaranteeing document security from pickup through destruction. We also offer flexibility and convenience—and if you are pressed for time, we can accommodate fast turnarounds as well.
