No, we haven’t started a faddy new diet. But we’re delighted to say that we’ve shed (or shred) a massive 2,000 tonnes of waste paper!
Did you know that McCarthy’s Safe Shred has now recycled enough confidential waste paper to make 10.8m toilet rolls? No, neither did we until the turn of the year!
We were delighted to be able to add a celebration to the start of the new year when we hit a major recycling milestone we’ve been working towards.
Since Safe Shred first started operating in 2013, we’ve been sending our shredded waste to Recycling UK, who do their magic with it to make it into something new and exciting! (well, we think it’s pretty exciting that what was once a highly confidential memo to a company CEO can in no time at all become an essential item in your littlest room!)
As we’re probably not the only ones who struggle to visualise what 2,000 tonnes looks or feels like – it’s the equivalent weight of more than 330 African Bush Elephants or 158 double decker buses. Neither of which we’d fancy getting into a fight with.
Over the last four years, we’ve taken confidential waste from businesses big and small, and those clever folk at Recycling UK have turned it into paper towels, facial tissues and toilet paper (enough to produce 10.8 million toilet rolls, so it seems). We collect waste paper from businesses across Yorkshire, and store it securely before our industrial shredders get to work – or in some cases we use our mobile shredder and destroy it directly at a client’s premises.
With General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force in May 2018, confidential waste disposal needs to be high on the agenda of firms across the EU. Businesses of all sizes will be impacted when GDPR becomes law. This doesn’t just apply to banks and law firms or medical practices – it’s any company, and any data, whether it’s related to customers, clients, service-users or employees.
Companies will have to keep on top of data security. It doesn’t matter whether that’s financial records, correspondence, receipts, HR files or simply just an email address, any data must be disposed of in line with the legislation, or businesses risk huge fines. And the fines really are potentially massive. They could reach 4% of annual global turnover – if you think of big companies with a £50bn turnover, 4% of that is a scary figure indeed. But even if you’re a small business, you won’t be able to fly under the radar. Customers are often quick to point out any data breaches, sometimes even before anyone else is aware. Now is the time to put processes in place to keep you, your employees and your clients safe.
Organising for your waste to be properly shredded by an industrial machine is one way to ensure you keep on the right side of the law concerning confidential data. And don’t forget the shredding of electronic data too, from old laptops, USBs, hard drives and phones. We can also help you properly dispose of and recycle electronic waste – as fraudsters have been known to access data which companies believed had been effectively wiped.
But, as our 330 African Elephants demonstrate – by shredding, you’re also doing your bit for the environment. We even provide customers with a certificate of destruction for their records, and you can put it on your wall and feel all warm and fuzzy that you’ve done the right thing.
For more information on GDPR or your shredding needs, why not give us a call on 0113 2624000.