Owning a paper shredder may, on the face of it, seem like a bit of a luxury. But whether you're a stay-at-home mom (or dad), buyer of office supplies or a factory manager, owning a paper shredder is becoming more and more of a necessity with each day that passes.
Identity theft, an increased risk of confidential material being unearthed by 'dumpster diving', and the growing pressure on us all to protect the environment by opting to recycle our waste are threats that we all are having to face up to. Now, more than ever before, we have to make sure that our personal and business documents are handled safely and responsibly.
Over the last few years there has been a sharp upturn in the popularity of 'dumpster diving'. Sifting through someone else's garbage, no matter how foul it may seem, can be very profitable for some of the unscrupulous individuals who do this. What's more, garbage in your trash can is construed as being 'in the public domain'. Once it's off your property, you have no legal jurisdiction over it. Anyone can come along and legally search through your garbage, perhaps finding those discarded bills and statements you've just dumped.
And once found, those same bills and statements provide valuable information that can be used to illegally steal your identity. For instance, if someone found your credit card number on a document, along with your name and address, then they could quite easily use your details to order goods & services over the Internet without ever being caught!
You can of course prevent this from happening by shredding all documents that you discard. There are paper shredders available to suit every need, right through from personal and home office shredders, to large industrial units that process huge quantities of material every hour. No matter which paper shredder you choose though, you can rest safe in the knowledge that your personal and business identity will not be compromised by the simple act of throwing your documents in the waste paper basket.
Americans generate more than 210 million tons of trash every year - and the problem is only getting worse. If we all started shredding our paper-based documents instead of putting them directly into the trash, we could reduce the burial of waste by several million tons a year by simply compressing the volume of paper sent to the dump!