The True Cost of In-House Shredding

A person sitting at a desk holding a pen while using a calculator.Have you ever heard a commercial on the radio that was so bad, you asked, “Why don’t they get a professional actor to do that instead of doing it themselves?” Now, ask yourself the same question about shredding. If your only reason to shred in-house is to save money, you should know it’s likely you aren’t saving money at all.

In-House Shredding is Not Secure

There are countless stories of sensitive data inadequately shredded by DIYers, resulting in fraudulent activity. Here are three examples:

  1. In 1979, Iranian students seized the US embassy in Tehran. The CIA officers shredded intelligence reports and operational information themselves, but the students successfully reassembled them by hand. US national security and the lives of the hostages they held for 444 days suffered greatly.
  2. In 2009, when Allen Stanford was charged with running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, federal prosecutors reassembled documents that the Stanford Financial Group had shredded. Allen Stanford is currently 9 years into a 110-year prison sentence.
  3. In recent years, Frank Abagnale—one-time con artist, cowriter and primary subject in the book, Catch Me If You Can, and now FBI secure document consultant—has said that documents from strip-cut shredders can be put together in an hour and from cross-cut shredders in about eight hours.

Unless your company is a shredding business, consider leaving the shredding to the professionals.

In-House Shredding is Inefficient

You hired quality staff because they are trained and experienced at what they do. If you have them spend their time shredding documents, you are essentially increasing labor costs and decreasing efficiency. The morale of skilled staff members who are asked to hand-feed paper into a shredder can also suffer, and the frustration of being routinely pulled away from their core tasks just builds.

In-House Shredding is Not Compliant

Your business may need to prove compliance with privacy protection laws. By shredding your own documents in-house, you lack proof that the data has been destroyed properly and on time. A secure chain of custody and a Certificate of Destruction provided by a reputable shredding company will serve as evidence in an audit or if legal action is taken by an outside party. Keeping good documentation is a great way to keep all of your ducks in a row.

Outsourcing shredding is your better choice

Seeking a reputable outside shredding company is a wise investment in security, proof of compliance, and peace of mind.

Richards & Richards has industrial shredding equipment that will ensure the data on your documents is unreadable and impossible to reassemble. Because we are NAID AAA Certified, by leaving the job to us, you can be confident that your shredding will be compliant and a certificate of destruction will be issued upon completion. Let us help you keep your business efficient and professional by giving us a call at 615-242-9600 or completing the form on this page. We look forward to hearing from you!

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Request an Immediate Shredding Quote

Newsletter Signup

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.