There is ferocious pressure to owning and running a business, especially as it starts to grow, taking on new staff and customers at an ever faster rate. One of the aspects of a growing business that is often overlooked is how paper documents are managed in terms of storage and disposal. There are a number of high profile regulations and laws relating to looking after data and information relating to staff members, employees, and even suppliers. One way to ensure that your business remains compliant at all times is to work with a local document management and shredding service, helping you to manage paper waste and securely dispose of information when the time comes to do so.

There are two processes attached to managing your paper waste, which we’ll discuss in finer detail here.

Disposing of Everyday Paper Waste 

It is easy to significantly change the culture in your working environment through the introduction of regular confidential shredding collections. You can begin by providing easily signposted and secure bins or cabinets to collect everyday paper waste, such as notepads or non-important literature and correspondence. Anything that doesn’t have to be kept should be disposed of in this way. Once shredded you are ensuring that all information produced at your place of work is being disposed of securely. Anything that could accidentally be destroyed when necessary, or stolen is no longer at risk of accidental damage or theft.

Storing and Disposing of Personal Information and Data 

Accidental damage or theft is more of a problem for any information that might be of a personal or sensitive nature, and relates to customers, staff members or even suppliers. Some information has to be stored securely and kept by a company for a certain period of time before it is no longer pertinent to the business interests of the company storing it. Once this time has passed that data has to be destroyed in a secure fashion in order to protect it from falling into the wrong hands and being used for unlawful gain. That is why a confidential shredding service is so important to any business, as there is personal information being stored within every business.

As well as looking after the data protection side of paper waste, confidential shredding of business documents and waste helps a company to shift the culture of working processes to become an environmentally aware business that is moving with the times. In that sense, a regular shredding service helps to retain and hire good quality staff members, improves efficiencies in the workplace and helps to boost the reputation of a business with customers and suppliers alike.

It really does pay on a number of levels for your business in North Scotland to work with a shredding company on a regular basis. A quality confidential shredding service should be able to provide secure shredding cabinets or paper waste baskets that are collected on a regular basis. From there your paper waste is destroyed at a secure location close by, under CCTV operation, with a certificate of destruction provided to prove that your company is adhering to Data Protection policies and legislation

Lucy Davies