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Secure
Shredding & Destruction Services
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We Collect. We Protect. We Destroy.
We control the entire destruction process from collection of your documents and materials through the shredding or destruction to the recycling whenever possible. With our secure destruction solutions OFFSITE ensures the total destruction of not only your paper documents, but media such as disks, tapes and CDs, as well as many other products. We provide the ability for you to monitor all activity in our shred plant via your internet browser.
It’s your business.
Your paper, your brand and your products are your company’s competitive edge. Do you really want to share them with your competitors? If you’re discarding them in the dumpster, you’re exposing your business to unnecessary and potentially costly risks. With our destruction solution, you’ll stay ahead of the pack by putting the secure destruction of valuable materials into the hands of the experts.
Convenient. Secure. Cost-effective.
You’ve just completed your annual spring-cleaning and you have a huge quantity of information to destroy. OFFSITE offers a great solution – one-time bulk shredding. We pick up your materials in bulk, transport them to our secure destruction center, and shred and destroy them. It’s convenient, secure and cost-effective.
OFFSITE Regular Service
We provide secure containers in which your staff places confidential documents from your office that need to be discarded on a regular basis. At regular intervals, our bonded and insured driver comes to remove the bin, replace it with another and destroy its contents. At the end of the month, we send an invoice with a report listing which containers were emptied and when they were emptied. Regular service can be weekly, every two weeks, every three weeks, monthly or every other month. We will do whatever we need to accommodate you.
What makes OFFSITE different than the other shredders?
Anyone with a pair of scissors or a simple office shredder can shred. Our goal is to help you manage risk. In other words, we help you create a complete destruction program. Our process is as follows:
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We sit down with you and discuss what regulatory issues affect your business. For example, for the health care industry, we are familiar with HIPAA regulations, what information is affected and how to make a facility compliant.
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We help your management team create a formal written plan about what should be secure and how it should be handled.
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We do a walkthrough of your facility to identify where bins should be placed.
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Once the document destruction program is written and in place, we help you and your staff on the most efficient and economical way to use the program.
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Because we scan a bin’s bar code whenever it is emptied, we can send you activity reports indicating which bins are being used and which are not.
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Periodically, we sit down with you to assess the program, its effectiveness, which locations need bigger bins, more bins or which locations don’t need bins at all.
Certificate of Destruction
A Certificate of Destruction is verification that the material retrieved from your office has been destroyed. You receive the Certificate AFTER the material has been destroyed. For customers with regular service, OFFSITE typically includes the Certificate with the invoice you receive at the end of the month.
Quality Control
OFFSITE's Quality Control process performs multiple checks and balances by verifying that all boxes scheduled for destruction have been properly marked and scanned before being shredded out of storage inventory. These items are destroyed only after three independent checks are completed.
Other Destruction and Shredding FAQ's
I have records I want to have destroyed. What are my options for destroying them?
You have two options:
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You can shred them yourself on a small office shredder. This is the most secure since you do it yourself, but it is also the most time consuming. Office shredders shred at most 18 pounds of paper an hour (assuming they never jam and you feed them constantly). Our shredders start at 1500 pounds an hour. You also have to deal with the waste paper and the hassle factor.
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You can call a shredding company. Shredding companies will destroy your paper in a mobile truck or at their warehouse. Based on the capacity described above, hiring a shredding company typically costs about ¼ the cost of doing it yourself.
Doesn't my recycling process destroy documents?
Yes. When the paper arrives at the mill, it is broken down into pulp and turned into new products. However, the path between your recycling bin and the actual destruction is long and circuitous. For example, your paper usually goes from an unsecured container in your office to an unsecured dumpster behind your building. It then gets transferred to an unsecured truck before being dumped at an unsecured facility. At that point it is usually baled (still not destroyed) and sent to a paper mill. At any point in that process your paper is accessible to any motivated individual. In many cases, it is entirely legal for someone to take your confidential information anywhere along the way.
Recycling is a terrific way to dispose of paper that doesn’t need to be destroyed. It has the advantage of usually being free. Unfortunately, it is no substitute for shredding.
Are OFFSITE employees bonded and insured?
Yes. We carry a $1,000,000 bond for our employees and a $5,000,000 liability insurance policy.
What is a Certificate of Destruction?
A Certificate of Destruction is verification that the material retrieved from your office has been destroyed. You receive the Certificate AFTER the material has been destroyed. For customers with regular service, OFFSITE typically includes the Certificate with the invoice you receive at the end of the month.
Can you guarantee that all copies of a given document were destroyed?
We can guarantee that all material placed in our containers is destroyed. Unfortunately, we cannot, for example, say that all copies of “X” document were destroyed since we have no way of knowing if all copies of that document were placed in our containers.
How big are your containers?
We have multiple sizes of containers: the executive console, a 35 gallon plastic container, the 64 gallon plastic container and a 95 gallon one as well. In larger settings we can also provide larger collection containers. The executive consoles are 22 3/4" x 15 3/4" x 36" high and hold 100 pounds of paper. The 35 gallon holds 125 pounds of paper with dimensions 36 5/8"H x 21"D x 20"W. The 64 gallon holds 200 pounds of paper and measures 31.5"D x 24"W x 43"H.
When you charge by the box, how big is a box?
The typical “banker’s” box is 15 by 12 by 11. We call that a single unit. If a box is a different size but holds the same amount of paper then we call that a “standard” box too. If you have larger or smaller boxes, we will work with you to come up with an appropriate price.
How do you determine the right number of consoles and the proper service frequency?
We monitor the consoles. For the first two pickups, we wait for you to call and say that the containers are full. Based on the frequency of those calls, we put you on a regular schedule with those intervals between visits. If consoles fill up before visits we can either increase frequency or place more consoles.
What are the charges for delivering or removing consoles?
For regularly scheduled customers, there is no charge for delivering or removing consoles.
What if I book a job, but the estimated volume of material grows?
That is fine and it happens all the time. If possible, let us know in advance so we can plan for it. If not, we may have to come back to finish the job.
What about staples, binder clips or paperclips?
Don’t worry about them. Our equipment eats binder clips and even three ring binders with no trouble.
What is Regular Service?
Regular service means that we come on a regularly scheduled basis to shred paper. We place containers in your office that you fill up – on a regular basis we come by to shred the contents of the containers. This is generally cheaper than storing records for a year and having one big shredding party – both in shredding costs and storage costs.
What is the difference between on-site shredding and off-site shredding?
Where the shredding is performed. With on-site shredding, vendors bring a truck with a shredder on board to your office. Those vendors shred the paper right on a client premises. With off-site shredding, we retrieve the paper from your office and transport it in a locked truck to our warehouse to shred it.
Now picture this scenario... a Brinks truck pulls up in front of your building, comes in and collects your money, then takes it out to the street to count and sort it, before putting it into their truck. If it was your money, you would not be very confident in the security. But that is not the case. Brinks takes your money out to the truck, securely transports it to a high security building and deals with it there. The mobile truck industry has convinced you that because they are in front of your building it is secure. The reality is the only benefit of the onsite shred truck is that you have the option of being present when they shred. History has proven that most people watch the first shred happen on the street or curb and then never do it again. Then, they are exposing themselves to risk every time their product is shredded.
Why is off-site shredding cheaper than on-site shredding?
Because it is cheaper for us to shred paper in our warehouse than on-site. We pass this savings along to you. Warehouse operations are cheaper for three reasons:
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Our warehouse shredder shreds about 20 times as much paper in an hour than the typical truck shredder. This means that the cost to shred a pound of paper is much lower.
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The reinforced box trucks used to bring paper to the warehouse are much cheaper to operate than a shredding truck.
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We can sort paper more efficiently in the warehouse – this enables us to get higher prices for our recycled paper.
Why do you charge by the container rather than by the pound or the minute?
We think charging by the minute creates a situation that is both ripe for abuse and impossible to audit. When charging by the minute, it is in the vendor’s best interest to charge for more minutes and the customer’s best interest to charge for fewer minutes. Since customers rarely follow the vendor around, it is awfully easy to let the clock run a little longer,or stop for a little break…..and who will ever know? In another example, some shredding trucks shred 1,000 pounds an hour and some shred 4,000 pounds an hour. If you were charging by the minute, which one would you bring? We simply don’t want our interests to conflict with those of our customer.
When charging by the bin, it is easy to see which bins have been emptied (and charged). Just kick the bin. It is in our best interest to come when the most bins are full (we can charge more) and your best interest as well (we come less frequently).
What does the paper look like after it has been shredded?
The resulting particles are not much bigger that a quarter. We use a “pierce and tear” method of shredding that literally rips the paper into irregular pieces instead of a traditional “strip” shredder. We think this is more secure since every single piece is small and irregularly shaped.
What happens to the paper after it is shredded?
The paper after it passes through our shredder is coneyed to a baler where it is compressed into 1000 pound bales ready for shipping to the paper mill. Once it arrives at a paper mill it is liquified and put through the process required to and comes back to you in the form of “secondary” paper products such as Kleenex and corrugated cardboard.
Will OFFSITE shred other media such as tapes, CD’s and diskettes?
Absolutely. Please keep these and other nonpaper materials separate from the paper. Combining them together means we can’t recycle the paper.
What is the turnaround time for unexpected pickups?
Usually 24 hours.
Avoiding
danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
Helen Keller