On-Site vs Off-Site Confidential Shredding: Which is Right for Your Business?

With the number of data breaches and the damage they cause increasing year on year, data security is becoming ever more important for businesses. This is why confidential shredding exists as an essential for business to protect their data. 

There are two main kinds of confidential shredding services: on-site and off-site. 

In this blog, we explore the key differences between on-site and off-site paper shredding, highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and explain why Recorra’s confidential shredding recycling service is the ideal choice for businesses. 

On-Site

On-site shredding occurs at your place of business. After shredding, the resulting shredded paper is then taken away.  

Some offices have their own shredders, but for those that do not, a waste company can park a specialist truck containing an industrial shredder at your premises, known as mobile shredders.  

Advantages of onsite shredding:

• On-site shredding can add an extra layer of security as waste is not transported elsewhere and fewer personnel are involved in the process.  
• This can provide extra peace of mind, allowing personnel to watch their documents be shredded. 

Disadvantages of onsite shredding:

• Businesses can’t produce their own certificates of destruction which means a lack of traceability for audits.  

• Cross Shredding, a method of shredding paper into small, confetti-like pieces to enhance data security, is now required to be considered as compliant under data protection regulation. However, the average office shredders do not cross-shred, and outsourcing shredders (i.e. mobile shredders) can be too expensive for smaller businesses.  

• Mobile shredders require parking space which can be an issue in a busy city like London. Mobile shredders can usually shred 500kg per hour, whereas shredders in recycling facilities can shred 8,000KG / 8 tonnes per hour. The average timeframe for mobile shredder to complete a job is 30 minutes to 1 hour, exceeding the timeframe for loading bays.  

• Mobile shredders are powered by a ttruck’s engine, which means mobile shredding can lead to higher exhaust emissions. 

• Mobile shredders often have minimum order quantity requirements, which can increase costs for small-scale confidential document producers or make them ineligible for the service.  

Off-site

Off-site shredding involves a waste operator collecting documents from your location and transporting them to a secure facility for shredding. 

Recorra offers confidential off-site shredding for our customers, providing the highest level of security while avoiding all issues associated with onsite shredding.  

Advantages of off-site shredding:

• Off-site shredding is ideal for businesses that lack the space for large shredders or cannot accommodate mobile shredding trucks. 

• Sending documents off-site for shredding eliminates the need for staff to manually shred, saving businesses time, reducing labour costs, and increasing overall efficiency. 

• As a paper shredding recycling specialist, Recorra cross-shreds documents in compliance with data protection regulations. 

• To further enhance security, documents from multiple companies are mixed together and shredded simultaneously. This added layer of protection.  

• With Recorra, you also have the assurance that your securely destroyed papers will be responsibly and sustainably recycled. 

• Off-site shredding is the most cost-effective option, making it particularly advantageous for smaller businesses. 

• Documents requiring shredding can be collected in bulk alongside other waste streams by our trained, vetted, and tracked drivers. 

Recorra’s Confidential Shredding Service

At Recorra, we understand how critically important secure and confidential data destruction is. This was why we take every measure to ensure the highest level of security when handling our customer’s confidential documents.  

We provide lockable bins so that sensitive documents are secure the moment they are disposed of right up until they are shredded. Our staff are highly trained, and our trucks tracked so you can be sure that your confidential waste will reach its destination safely and securely.  

Going above and beyond for our people and the planet, our shredder is powered by an electric motor, ensuring lower emissions, and we guarantee that all shredded paper is recycled to the highest standards. When you choose Recorra, you can trust in our commitment to low emissions and high recycling rates.  

Need secure and sustainable options for you IT and electric waste? Recorra also provide IT wiping and disposal. Find out more here.