DOCUMENT DESTRUCTION

Herein lies the dilemma: how to market your shredder? Determining the target market, whether home office, SME, corporate or government will be the first place to start.

Shredders are all mechanical devices, with different capabilities, so let’s start by looking at the differences and then you can determine how to gear your offering to a specific sector or market.

The basic models will shred paper into ribbons or strips and these are usually known as strip shredders. These will usually shred a document into 39 ribbons and are probably the easiest to maintain and are very quick. They however offer the least secure form of shredding as the documents can still be pieced together after shredding (a very tedious project, but potentially it can be done). This would not be the ideal unit for destroying confidential information as it carries a security level P1, best suited to shredding non-sensitive documents. These shredders go up to P3, which, whilst more secure still not applicable to shredding confidential information.

The cross-cut paper shredder will reduce an A4 document into 300 – 900 tiny pieces, depending on the machine and the settings. This is a much more secure way of destroying or shredding confidential information. These are popular in a home office or SME; they are affordable and thorough. The downside of this machine is the frequent maintenance required. They may need regular oiling to ensure that they work consistently, and the bin size is relatively compact, requiring regular emptying. The security level here is P4 and P5, meaning that this is a secure shredder for confidential documentation. The P4 shredder will be quicker but the P5 will be slightly more secure but slower.

Next, we look at the micro-shredders. These have a much higher level of security, reducing an A4 page into 2000 individual micro-confetti pieces. Usually, the waste bin on these is slightly larger, but is also secure and because of the efficiency of the shredder, the particles are tiny and take up less space. The machine will also require regular maintenance and oiling. A further downside is that the machine is a lot slower and cannot manage a large number of documents simultaneously, but the end result is excellent. This would move you into a security level of P6 and P7 – this shredder will struggle with volume, but is very secure.

Auto-feed shredders are capable of shredding a large volume of documents at a time, you just load the documents (usually between 100 and 500 pages), and the machine will shred away, there is no need to manually feed the documents in. This is the most common variety found in offices. There is a security risk of leaving the machine with a stack of confidential documents in the try though, so ideally opt for one with a lockable tray. Depending on the level of security required, you may need to rethink this as an option.

There are some shredders that have the capability to shred plastic and would therefore be ideal in banks or IT departments where cards need to be destroyed.

Continuous duty paper shredders are heavy duty and capable of running

continuously and shredding huge volumes of documents. They don’t have a cool down period as is the case with smaller shredders. Down time is not as important in a home office as it would be in a large audit firm or legal practice.

Penultimately, there are the industrial paper shredders. As the name implies, it is intended for industrial use and will take up a lot of space. For your corporate client that is storing large amounts of financial documents which can be destroyed after five years, this may be the answer.

The upside of these industrial shredders is that they can be coupled with a baler machine that will compress the waste paper into convenient cubes that can be sold to paper recyclers and be easily transported from site. The second of the industrial shredders are employed by professional data destruction companies; they are much larger and are in fact multi-level. They have a tremendous throughput and work to reduce documents to micro particles.

Ultimately, there are the real budget busting options that are available. These have a very low level of security, but portability and ease of use are their key words. There is the electronic handheld shredder that you hold over a waste paper basket whilst you shred and can shred a couple of documents into ribbons.

Lastly, we look at the manual, nonelectronic shredder, where you rotate a handle and ribbons come out the other side. Whilst very low tech and not very secure, the benefit of portability and ease of use mean it has it’s place in the market – oh, and loadshedding can’t beat it!

Once you have determined the best fit of shredder for the client, there are some other incentives that you can offer to make them see the benefit of shredding: • It is in accordance with the POPI Act to ensure the safety of client’s personal information. Whether the information be medical, legal or financial; if you have their personal information, you have an obligation to protect it. • It is environmentally friendly. If you consider how much waste goes into landfills, by shredding you can sell the shredded paper to a paper recycler and earn an income from your office waste – in fact the paper industry relies on paper being recycled for them to produce the quantities of new paper that we need and rely on. • Space saving is another benefit. By safely disposing of old or unnecessary files and paperwork means that current work in progress, has a space in your office. • Fire safety is also a concern in buildings that house huge quantities of old paper. Many systems are turning digital and as such old paper can be done away with as soon as the data is transferred to a digital format.

Essentially, determining a target market, security that is required i.e., ribbons or teeny-weeny confetti, amount of use and possibly space will assist in suggesting the best solution to suggest to the client. Budget will also be a large part of what will sell or what can be sold. As the saying goes: buy the best that you can afford. The best being the most secure, reliable machine with longest guarantee and lowest maintenance with best after sales service. If you can convince a client of at least some of the above, you should be able to shred your way to the top. If all else fails, remind them of the money to be made selling their waste paper to a recycler and all the space they will save doing this. The environment needs you! �

Level P-1: strips: ≤ 12 mm (½”) wide Level P-2: strips: ≤ 6 mm (¼”) wide Level P-3: strips: ≤ 2 mm wide Level P-4: cross-cut: ≤ 160 mm² particles with width ≤ 6 mm Level P-5: cross-cut: ≤ 30 mm² particles with width ≤ 2 mm Level P-6: cross-cut: ≤10 mm² particles with width ≤ 1 mm Level P-7: cross-cut: ≤ 5 mm² particles with width ≤ 1 mm