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Improve Recycling With Document Shredding

Coming to the end of another year is a good time to reflect on how it went and what you hope to accomplish for the next one. With the ever-increasing issues caused by climate change, we should all consider doing more to improve our sustainability efforts. The world’s resources are finite and everything we could do to reduce our impact and reuse what we’ve already got is imperative. Though what we can do individually varies greatly, one of the easiest and most effective things we can do, is to simply recycle properly.

From our end of things, where we are aiming the main thrust of our effort is towards the paper recycling side of sustainability. When the topic of paper recycling comes up, some people are all on board for it but are concerned with handing over their personal documents; as they should be. Once your information is out of your hands you have no control over it. Anything could happen between the time you put it out at the curb to its final destination, assuming it ends up where it’s meant to be.

Instead of completely writing off recycling your documents due to security concerns, another step needs to be inserted at the start of the process. That step is, of course, secure document shredding. This type of service is dedicated to preserving information privacy by combating information theft while also supporting sustainability efforts.

 

How Does Document Shredding Help Sustainability?

It all comes down to the process, which is a very simple one. The paper gets shredded into confetti, rendering it unusable to any individual who may have an interest in stealing private information, and then it is shipped directly to a recycling center for recycling. That’s it! Simple, clean, easy. That all sounds good, but what is the actual impact on sustainability levels?

Consider the following savings. Recycling just one ton of paper saves: 17 mature trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil, and 4,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That’s very impressive considering it was just one ton of paper! Now take those savings and multiply it by the fact that the United States uses approximately 85,000,000 tons of paper a year!

Imagine what could happen if we recycled every scrap of paper out there, and then expanded to all materials. It could, dare we say it, change the world.

Ultimately what we hope you take away from this is that you don’t need to sacrifice your security for sustainability, or sustainability for your security. If we all do our part and take these things seriously, it can affect real change. 

And that, in our humble opinion, is how both recycling and document shredding improves sustainability efforts.

December 3, 2019