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What Does Paper Shredding Have to Do with Earth Day?

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Illustration of planet Earth with trees around in cartoon hand drawn style.In 1909, the first US patent for a paper shredder was issued. In 1970, Earth Day was established as a day dedicated to bringing environmental issues to the forefront. What do these two things have to do with each other? More than you might think. Here we explain how closely they are related.

The Benefits of Shredding

When you choose to shred your sensitive documents with a reputable, professional shredding company, the benefits are:

  • Confidentiality & Security: Your documents will be completely destroyed so that they don’t create a data breach risk for you by being lost, stolen, or seen by the wrong people.
  • Compliance: All state and federal laws are being followed and a paper trail of all information is kept, all for the purpose of protecting you, your staff, clients, customers, patients, company, and reputation.
  • Efficiency: Documents are promptly destroyed, and your staff focus on their primary jobs rather than spending time shredding paper and maintaining equipment.
  • Affordability: Outsourced shredding is more affordable than in-house shredding.

The Benefits of Earth Day

When you have a reputable and secure shredding company shred your documents and destroy your hard drives, then recycle 100% of the shredded materials, you are doing Earth a good turn. Choosing a company that recycles helps our planet by:

  • Keeping paper out of landfill sites. The average American uses more than 700 pounds of paper each year, and if they dispose of it through the landfill system, it takes up a lot of space in landfills that should be used for products that cannot be recycled. It also releases methane, a damaging greenhouse gas, throughout the entire month it takes to break down in a landfill. Currently, paper waste takes up more space in landfills than any other product. Let’s change that!
  • Decreasing the number of trees that are cut down. 386 million hectares of forest in the world were lost between 2001 and 2019, and there has been about a 10% decrease in tree cover since 2000. However, for every ton of paper your shredding company recycles, 17 trees are saved from being cut down to make new paper products. Recycling spares trees and the ecosystems they support.

Other Ways You Can Help

  • Use less paper. In addition to shredding already-used paper, moving from paper to digital document creation will significantly decrease the harvesting of trees and use of energy to produce new paper products and recycled used paper.
  • Print on both sides of the paper. This cuts paper use almost in half.
  • Purchase recycled paper products. Office paper is the most common use of recycled paper, but facial tissues, toilet paper, napkins, paper towels, greeting cards, cardboard, newspapers, magazines, and many more products are made from recycled paper.
  • Save a tree. Larger trees store far more carbon than newer smaller trees. Preventing the loss of one hectare of existing mature forest avoids about 100 tons of carbon emissions. Even a new tree requires about 30 years to capture the same amount of carbon the older tree absorbed.
  • Plant a tree (or two, or more!). By planting trees, you decrease carbon dioxide in the air, create homes and food for wildlife, help avoid erosion, create oxygen, reduce noise and pollution, create wind barriers for crops, provide shade to cool water sources, offer shelter for animals, and much more.
  • Support a tree-planting organization. Tree planting organizations can plant quicker, cheaper and more successfully using your financial support.
  • Reuse or repurpose paper products. The easiest way to recycle is actually to reuse paper products. For instance, no additional energy is required to use a shipping box to store something else. You can also repurpose paper products and make other things, such as packing material, wrapping paper, kindling, pet bedding, composting, crafting, and so much more.

Wiggins Shredding provides secure shredding services in Pennsylvania and the Tri-State area of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. By working with us, you get unparalleled information security, regulatory compliance, and become a supporter of Earth Day and all of the good paper recycling does for our environment. Just give us a call at 610-692-TEAR(8327) or complete the form on this page.

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