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Written by The McCarthy's Team on November 28, 2021

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For those who have never used a professional shredding service before, we understand there can be a lot of questions. How does it work? How do I find the best shredding services near me? (we can definitely help with that one if you’re in Yorkshire!)

So, we’ve compiled a list of the most common questions we get asked, to help give you a better understanding of our shredding and document disposal services, in case they could be of assistance to you. If you have your own questions not covered here, do get in touch – we’re always happy to help.

Do I have to be a business or can I use your shredding services as an individual?

We cater for both the business and home shredding services. For homeowners, we can do one off jobs either on a collection basis or you can bring your shredding to us, with prices starting from just £15 plus VAT. We can deliver a bin or a sack to you, which you can fill as you go along, until you’re ready for it to be disposed of. A lot of people find it handy when they’re moving or to have an annual clear out.

Looking for home shredding services near me? We can help!

What are the main benefits of using a professional shredding service?

Using a home or office shredder can be a laborious and thankless task. We’ve all done it – spent hours feeding sheet after sheet in, only for it to jam or overheat. It’s not a great use of anyone’s time. Our shredding machines are on an industrial scale so get through mountains of paperwork in minutes. Not only that, they’re shredded much more thoroughly, to British Standards, so you can be confident your confidential waste poses no future risk. Which is very important when it comes to GDPR and identity theft!

Do I have to take out a regular shredding contract or are one off jobs possible?

We do regular contracts for businesses, but we also do one off jobs for both businesses and homeowners. We’ll either deliver a bin which we collect from you when its full, or you can use our handy sacks, fill them yourself, and bring them to one of our centres in Leeds, York, Wakefield, Harrogate or Huddersfield.

My business has a lot of shredding, and we don’t really have time to drop it off anywhere. Can you come and collect it?

Absolutely! We can install a lockable bin in your office and you can call us when it’s full or we can arrange weekly, fortnightly or monthly collections from one of our uniformed employees, who will safely transport the paperwork back to our shredding facility in a secure van. We know how important it is that your documents don’t fall into the wrong hands and we take security very seriously.

How will I know my documents have definitely been destroyed?

We provide a certificate of destruction to our customers as proof that their paperwork has been properly destroyed.

I like to be environmentally friendly, what will happen to all the waste paper?

Absolutely all of the paper we shred is recycled. It is used to make paper towels and toilet roll – so it’s definitely put to good use! That is also done at UK mills – we don’t ship any waste for recycling overseas.

Do I need to do anything to prepare my documents for shredding?

Just make sure you’re keeping your paperwork separate to other rubbish like food waste. With our industrial shredders, you don’t need to worry about staples, bindings or paperclips as you would with a home shredder. So, you don’t need to worry about dismantling presentations or old notebooks.

Is there anything you can’t shred?

Obviously our shredding service is primarily for documentation, however, we can also help shred electronic items too! More and more frequently nowadays, confidential data is stored on our phones, our hard drives and USBs. It can be hard to properly wipe these of all traces of data – so once they’ve reached the end of their useful life, we can offer WEEE recycling of electronic equipment.

What costs will I be looking at?

It can cost from just £15 plus VAT for a one-off shredding of a sack of documents you bring to us. One-off collections would start from as little as £70 plus VAT.

I have paperwork which will need shredding, but legally I need to hang on to it for a specified time. They’re taking up so much space – can you help?

Absolutely! We can either offer a self storage unit for you to store your own items in or we also provide a document management service. We can keep hold of your documents in our secure storage centre, carefully tracked so we can retrieve any needed with a moment’s notice. However, if those are to be destroyed once a certain date is reached, we can do that automatically – taking the onus off you having to remember and freeing up valuable office space!