Where does your confidential paperwork go?

While recycling bins are readily available in York, Harrogate, Hull, Leeds, Beverley and the surrounding areas, far more often than not they are used to collect more than just cans, bottles, and plastic. What’s wrong with disposing with paper in the blue bin? Paper itself isn’t the culprit, but offices generate a vast amount of files that contain private informationregarding business plans and more; it’s simply too risky to include these papers in your recycling bin.

What’s the big deal? When paper documents are left in open recycling bins, there is a considerable increase in the risk of lost/stolen information; if this occurs, it could be damaging to those directly involved, and may even lead to data breach, affecting the state of your general business.

Consider this: Would you want strangers to know how much you earn, or marketing plans your company plans to execute? Of course not, but if you’re throwing these sensitive documents into the recycling bin, that’s exactly the type of information you’re sharing with the general public. Identity thieves will rummage through trash bins and recycling bins specifically seeking this kind of data; anything they can use to obtain personal data.

Recycling bins are only sensible for documents containing non-valuable information. Because deciding what constitutes as private and non private information can be difficult, many companies are eliminating recycling bins for office paper collection, and instead are using secure,lockable binsfor paper disposal.

Business documents you no longer need to store, but do consist of private information, should be kept in these paper collection bins, until collected for shredding. These containers and consoles are usually provided by a professional document destruction company, and are serviced on a predetermined date. In fact, at Yorshred, we will work with you to customise an appropriate paper shredding schedule that is fitting to your unique needs. Depending on the volume of sensitive documents you have, we’ll provide you with appropriate bins, and offer you weekly, two weekly, or four weekly services.

Be certain that your business is doing everything possible to keep its private information private. Remember that you have a responsibility as an employer to protect details pertaining to your customers and employees; consider implementing the following, if you haven’t already:

• Create a safe and trusting work environment that is based on security with top-down dedication from management.
• Consider a ‘shred-all’ policy for the most efficient means of document disposal. Implementing this simple practice will remind employees to dispose of documents securely. All documents are collected and stored in locked consoles, saving your employees from having to determine what’s deemed confidential and what’s not.
• Carry out regular security audits to evaluate which areas in your day to day business need improvements to attain a higher level of security, this is a service that Yorshred offers.

At Yorshred, we’ll provide you with lockable collection bins to store your sensitive documents, meaning your information remains secure until your scheduled collection date. Depending on the volume of paper you store and circulate, we will set you up with shred containers at no charge provided you have arranged a regular paper shredding schedule with us.

Remember, we will also provide you with a certificate of destruction once the shredding of your material has been completed, proving you with an audit trail and protecting your business and it’s reputation.