How paper recycling can make your business successful

February 9, 2018August 10, 2021 Dominic Lill conservation, eco-friendly, environment, files, identity theft, Paper, privacy, Recycling, sensitive information, shredders

Are you worried that your confidential office documents could fall into the wrong hands?

Every business collects and maintains sensitive information over time. A lot of businesses have made the shift from paper to electric but there are still a lot of companies that store their sensitive information in good old paper files. Paper recycling should be the way your business deals with sensitive information and ensures your customer’s data is secure.

Disposing of these files containing your company’s sensitive information is important but only if they are disposed of properly. Using paper shredders to shred these files when they’re no longer needed will safeguard your company’s sensitive information.

Paper shredding protects your sensitive information by:

1. Preventing identity theft

Shredding your paper files containing your sensitive information is necessary nowadays to protect your business, employees and clients. In 2012 alone, roughly 16.7 million Americans were victims of at least one identity theft.

2. Protects your customer’s privacy

As a professional courtesy, it is vital that you make sure to protect your customer’s identities and personal information. The best way to do this is by shredding this sensitive information immediately.

3. Strict laws

Strict laws about information privacy and security are becoming a lot stricter nowadays due to proper enforcement. Businesses that fail to uphold these agreements tend to suffer heavy penalties and fines.

4. Protects your employees

All employees are legally entitled to personal privacy which you should also uphold. Make sure to properly dispose of pay stubs, social security cards and health records properly. Shredding your employee’s personal documents and information is best.

5. Cuts on time consumption

You can opt to use an industrial paper shredder over an office shredder as it offers better protection of data and can handle bigger loads of paper files which can be shredded in a shorter time.

Repurposing your shredded paper for packaging will reduce your packaging cost

Getting rid of waste in an eco-friendly way is best as you can further recycle and repurpose the shredded paper by using it as an alternative to your packaging material to provide cushioning to fragile items.

Recycling paper promotes an eco-friendly image of your business

Recycling paper reduces your company’s overall energy consumption, reducing air and water pollution as well as increasing forest conservation. It your company’s important files through a shredder promotes an eco-friendly image which your customers are becoming increasingly conscious about.

4 environmental benefits of paper recycling in your business

1. Energy conservation

Recycling paper reduces your consumption of energy and resources. Manufacturing virgin paper requires a lot more energy compared to recycling waste paper. Recycling a ton of newspaper saves on about 4 barrels of oil which is enough to power your home for 6 months.

2. Water conservation

Recycling paper also contributes to water conservation as it takes copious amounts of water to manufacture and produce virgin paper as compared to the recycling process which requires a lot less. It takes about 3 gallons of water to make a single sheet of paper whereas recycling a single ton of paper saves about 7000 gallons of water.

3. Forest conservation

Around 35% of all trees that are cut down are used to produce virgin paper. People have started growing trees to harvest and manufacture paper which accounts for about 16% of world pulp production. Unfortunately, 9% of the trees that are cut down for virgin paper production come from old forests. The rest of the 75% of un-recycled pulp comes from younger forests.

4. Reducing water and air pollution

Paper recycling is a lot more eco-friendly as less air and water is polluted in the process. Roughly around 35% less water and 74% less air is polluted according to a study by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

You can safely destroy your important files without having to worry about them falling into the wrong hands. Having an industrial paper shredder will allow easy paper recycling in an efficient and eco-friendly manner.

Erich Lawson is very passionate about the environment and is an advocate of effective recycling. You can learn more about environment saving techniques by visiting his blog Northern California Compactors, Inc blog.