Document Destruction
Did you know that (according to the EPA) 41% of all office waste is paper-related? The average office wastes around 1.5 pounds of paper per day! Recycling office paper is a simple and effective way to reduce waste. Placing a recycling bin inside of your office is an ideal way to get started. But, there are many additional ways to reduce office paper waste. Be proactive when it comes to protecting the environment by paying attention to these paper recycling tips.
- Reuse paper. Ask office employees to place paper that has only been used on one side inside of a special box or tray. When non-sensitive information must be written or printed, ask staff members to take paper from the stack of one-sided paper.
- Recycle Envelopes. When possible, reuse envelopes that have already been printed on. You can purchase address labels that can be affixed over an existing address.
- Take advantage of technology. Sending an email instead of sending a fax or memo takes less time, less paper, and will save on printing costs – make sure to recycle your e-waste too!
- Adjust font sizes. Make sure that all corporate paperwork is printed using the same basic font. By making the house font smaller and setting column widths a bit wider, you can cut back on printing paper.
- Cut back on mail. If your office receives mailers regularly, contact the National Waste Prevention Coalition. This organization will send you postcards (printed on recycled paper) that ask organizations not to send mailers to your office. You can also ask clients to send emails instead of letters.
Sometimes printing a letter or document is necessary. Purchasing recycled paper from the start is the best way to set a great office example. If your office is equipped with a kitchen, you can also purchase recycled paper goods. Recycling office paper doesn’t require much time or energy, but it will make a huge impact on the environment. Call Go Green Mobile Shredding today to turn your office paper into eco-friendly pulp. You can reach us at (877) 821-0217.
The electronics and high tech gadgets that we enjoy our in everyday lives contain a number of pollutants and other materials that are harmful to the environment and the public health if disposed of improperly. But the costs of managing and controlling the negative impacts of e-waste aren’t reflected in the price tags you’ll see on the shelf. So who should pay for these “hidden costs” of e-waste—and how?
That’s a question that national laws and regulations don’t yet address. But states across the country, including California, are beginning to take on the challenge of paying for e-waste recycling and sustainable disposal of electronics through their own laws.
Here are a few:
New York – Free for Consumers, but Manufacturers Pay Up
New York State recently enacted a law that places the financial burden of e-waste recycling on the manufacturers. That is, companies like Apple, Dell, HP and Samsung will have to pay out of their own pockets for the collection and recycling of electronics that contain toxic materials.
Because the fee is paid directly by the manufacturer based on the type of e-waste they’ll be producing down the road, it incentivizes them to explore greener ways to make their top-selling gadgets. Meanwhile, consumers pay nothing—all they have to do is participate in the manufacturer’s electronics take back program, or drop off the electronics at a certified pickup location. And by 2015, this will be mandatory for consumers—dumping electronics in the normal trash will be illegal by then.
Maine – Municipal Government/Producer Responsibility
In Maine, manufacturers pay for the recycling of e-waste, but municipal governments are in charge of collecting e-waste. Local governments are required to hold e-waste collection events or maintain e-waste drop off points for consumers. As such, part of the effort is paid for through tax dollars.
California – Consumers Contribute to Fund Innovation
In California, we have what is called an Advance Recovery Fee (ARF) system. This means that when Californians buy a computer, a cell phone or TV, they are charged an additional Electronic Waste Recycling Fee on top of their purchase. This money goes towards funding state-approved e-waste collectors and recycling centers across California.
The Electronic Waste Recycling Fee is not a deposit, nor is it a “prepayment” of the disposal fee for your covered electronic device. Rather, this money is used by the state to ensure that entrepreneurs and independent e-waste recyclers have the resources they need in order to recycle and process electronic waste in an eco-friendly and efficient fashion.
In this way, the Electronic Waste Recycling Fee plays a big role in ensuring that companies like Go Green Mobile Shredding can offer Southern California businesses cost-effective rates for e-waste pick up, e-waste disposal and hard drive destruction.
As Californian’s, we’re proud of the measures that our state legislators have taken in order to equitably distribute the costs of e-waste disposal and recycling. Because the sad fact is, when there aren’t laws and regulations in place to address the costs of e-waste management, then everyone pays—if not today, then tomorrow, when our ecosystems become endangered and our children and grandchildren become sick. We hope that other states, and perhaps the national government, will take cues from the successes demonstrated in states like New York, Maine and California. That way, we won’t be faced with difficult decisions, such as whether to fund public schools or to pay for superfund cleanup sites, or whether to invest in renewable energy or pay for the ongoing reclamation of contaminated landfills.
Going green is going well in California—and we’re glad that we can make it easy for you to do your part. Call Go Green Mobile Shredding for all your e-waste recycling and secure hard drive disposal needs.
Today’s business managers and consumers are getting savvier about protecting their privacy and identity. But a heightened awareness of the importance of paper shredding has led to a few persistent misconceptions about data security.
1. Particle Size Matters Most
Well-intentioned office managers often presume that, when it comes to paper shredding or hard drive destruction, smaller particle size always equals greater security. While it is important for shredded material to be practically unreconstructable, there are other points of vulnerability to consider beyond the risk of someone piecing together shredded paper or electronics. This is why government agencies stress the process of data destruction, rather than the resulting particle size. Regulations focus on best practices for the collection, transport, processing and disposal of sensitive material.
Don’t be overly impressed by the size of the particles that any particular shredding company claimed to produce. Particles that are 1/26” aren’t inherently more secure than particles that are 1/32”. Instead, ask how secure their data destruction process is. A good way to measure that is to check for National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) certification. NAID verifies approximately 20 different aspects of a data destruction company’s process before awarding certification.
2. In-house Paper Shredding is Best
There’s a mentality that if you want something done right, do it yourself. But when it comes to data destruction, handling it in-house may actually leave you more liable. Shredded confidential documents in the dumpster behind your office building are easy targets for two reasons:
1. Dumpsters on public roads or even private alleys are easily, and in some cases, legally accessible.
2. Experienced dumpster divers know that shredded documents contain the most valuable information; that’s what they’ll grab first.
Outsourcing your paper shredding solves these issues by disposing your processed documents in a receptacle or facility that is not open to the public and by comingling your shredded documents with material from other clients.
3. All Paper Recycling is Secure
Many businesses have arrangements with recycling companies who buy their office paper, pick it up and take it to their facility for processing and baling. While these companies serve an important role for the environment, the purpose of this service is completely different from secure data destruction. This arrangement is purely for the sale of recyclables, and doesn’t account for the security of your company’s information. Sensitive documents could be compromised in transit to the facility or even at the facility by an employee. A more secure way to dispose of your recyclable material is to shred them on-site, right before your eyes.
Go Green Mobile Shredding is a NAID Member data destruction company that can shred your hard drives, digital media and paper on site, right in your parking lot. We issue a certificate of destruction documenting the secure processing of your materials and then bring them to a certified recycling facility.
Call Go Green Mobile Shredding today to learn how your office can protect its data and save the environment.
For guidance on compliant secure document disposal practices, most businesses and organizations look to federal regulations, such as HIPAA and FACTA. But the State of California has long had a record for enacting its own consumer and environmental protection laws that go above and beyond what most states require. The same is true for the laws governing how businesses handle personal information and sensitive documents.
If you’d like to read the entire California civil code yourself, you can do so online. But we thought we’d save you some time by pulling out a few salient lines that pertain to privacy, document security and your business. Take note of these important reminders from the law.
If Personal Information is Compromised, You’re Responsible
California Civil Code Section 1798.81 says that a business must take “all reasonable steps” to dispose or arrange for the disposal of all documents containing personal information by means of “(a) shredding, (b) erasing, or (c) otherwise modifying the personal information in those records to make it unreadable or undecipherable through any means.” (Emphasis added.)
That last bit is particularly important. Instead of laying out specifically how obscured the data has to be (i.e. cross cut, ribbon cut, formatted), California law says that it must be completely unreadable by any means. So, even if you shred a document into tiny fragments and someone comes along and pieces it back together or uses special scanning software to digitally restore it, you’re responsible, in spite of your good intentions. The same is true if a third party digs old hard drives out of the trash and uses data recovery software to extract personal information from it.
The lesson: err on the side of caution. Don’t underestimate the persistence of identity thieves, and don’t stop anywhere short of completely eradicating your data.
Compromised Electronic Data Equals Bad PR and High Costs
California Civil Code Section 1798.82 states that any breach of the security of a system containing personal data must be disclosed to all California residents whose information may have been compromised as soon as the breach is detected. While this law typically applies to servers which have been hacked, it holds true for hard drives which may have fallen into the wrong hands. The law states that you must send an electronic or written notice to each person who may have been affected by the security breach. Given that a hard drive can hold hundreds of thousands of records, that’s a lot of letters and emails! According to the law, if the costs of sending out a notice exceeds $250,000, then you can notify the public via a prominent notice on your website or via a major statewide media outlet.
At any rate, even if no one’s identity is stolen and no other adverse impacts result from the security breach, such as a box full of used hard drives being stolen off the back of a truck on its way to the landfill, you’re facing a potential PR nightmare. Publicly announcing that your servers or data systems were compromised can shake the confidence of existing or potential customers that you will be a good steward of the sensitive data, and that can be bad for business in the long run.
The Law is Not on Your Side
The California state legislature takes privacy concerns seriously, and their number one priority is protecting the personal information of individuals, not cutting businesses a break. That sentiment is summed up in the opening line of California Civil Code Section 1798.81.5, which says: “It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that personal information about California residents is protected.”
The lesson: You won’t get much sympathy from the court if it comes down to a legal action. Your best defense is a well documented record of your due diligence, including dates when documents and digital media was destroyed and a Certificate of Destruction indicating the time, place and manner of destruction.
We can help you cover those bases and more with our mobile shredding services. From hard drives and DVDs to file boxes and office papers, we can shred all of your sensitive documents to the point of unreadability by any means on-site.
Call Go Green Mobile Shredding at (877) 821-0217 for more information.
By now, most businesses and households are accustomed to recycling paper, cardboard and beverage containers. But don’t forget about DVDs and CDs. As many of us transition away from disc media like CDs and DVDs in favor of flash drives and other removable media, many optical discs wind up in the trash can, and ultimately, in the land fill. Compact discs and DVDs, however, are indeed made out of plastic. But unlike bottles and other containers, they do not include the chasing arrows and number symbol that indicates the type of plastic and whether or not it is recyclable, which leads many to believe that they are not. In fact, many curbside pickup recyclers do not accept CDs and DVDs. That’s because if they were to bear such a symbol, they would be shown as Number 7 plastics. Number 7 plastics, such as computer cases, nylon, 3- and 5-gallon water bottles and sunglass lenses fall into the difficult to distinguish “other” category.
If you’re a concerned parent, you may recognize number 7 plastics as the category to which polycarbonate products, including DVDs, belong to. Polycarbonate has been controversial lately since studies show that they leach bisphenol A into food and water. Bisphenol A, or BPA, has been shown to be harmful to infants and fetuses. Because of this, it is particularly important to keep number 7 plastics out of landfills and dispose of them sustainable so that they do not contaminate water that can eventually cycle back into habitats or drinking water supplies.
At Go Green Mobile Shredding, we shred and recycle all types of e-waste and digital media, including CDs, DVDs, hard drives, tape drives, floppy disks, zip disks and Blu-ray discs. This is not only greener for the Earth, it’s safer for your colleagues and customers. CDs and DVDs, even heavily scratched or damaged CDs and DVDs, contain readable data that is physically etched into the media. A persistent identity thief could extract data from optical media and recover personal information from it for unscrupulous means. So, when you shred your CDs, DVDs, hard drives and other e-waste, you’re not just helping the environment, you’re protecting the privacy of your community members.
If you’re interested in doing more to conserve the environment and keep your sensitive data secure, give us a call at (877) 821-0217 and ask about our on-site mobile shredding.
