Document Destruction Basics

Not all document destruction services are created equal, and there are a multitude of horror stories from businesses across the country to prove that point. Document destruction, whether in house or through a third party provider, is the process of destroying hard copy materials. More often than not, the need to eliminate the existence of materials such as these has little to do with space management and much to do with keeping sensitive information out of the hands of those who might use it for less than honest purposes.

Document destruction has been around since the advent of print, but today’s document is a little less primitive than the methods of old. Though nothing eradicates the printed word like fire, modern document destruction manages to reduce paperwork and other forms of hard copy through the process of shredding.

It didn’t take identity thieves, law enforcement or corporate espionage experts long to realize that the first production shredders were the equivalent of puzzle making machines. Single line shreds every centimeter across the vertical axis of a document do little to deter someone determined to reconstruct the whole. Later, shredders with more blades and the addition of secondary shredders across the horizontal axis made it more difficult to reconstruct documents, but not impossible. Many document destruction facilities still use this technology today in their document destruction machinery, which is simply a larger version of what can be purchased at any office supply store.

More recent advances make the finished product resemble small particle mulch, which effectively eliminates the possibility of a document ever being reassembled. The shreds are vertically minute and undergo crosscutting at a rate that produces .5 x 1.5mm shreds, far smaller than confetti.

Larger, industrial sized machines used by document storage and transference facilities can handle between five hundred and one thousand sheets at a time, making mass document destruction affordable for companies with volumes of paperwork to eliminate.
When searching for document destruction services, it’s important to ensure that the companies you consider use the latest shredding technology and have the capacity to handle higher volumes if necessary. Higher volume usually translates into a lower price.

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