Last century changed the course of the entire human society with the wonders of Industrialization. The present century is ailing for the damage done by it to be fixed for good. Environmental deterioration and Global warming do make-up for entertaining science-fiction and post-apocalyptic movies. Sadly, they are real!
Large enterprises and businesses are realizing this bleak reality of our Planet’s health and are striving to become more eco-friendly in their overall operational spectrum. University of Maryland, in their journal of 2016, revealed that 73.4 Million acres of tree cover was lost globally. Moreover, it is noteworthy that 15 percent of the total greenhouse gases are contributed by constant deforestation.
If one cares to jog their mind a little, one would easily stumble upon the realization that one of the leading causes of deforestation is the demand of paper. If businesses were to change their operational process a little bit, they can minimize the global tree loss significantly. And, they can do so by just managing their records as per the retention schedule and then Shredding them!
In this post, we will see why Paper-shredding is an eco-friendly activity for everyone, and how it promotes environmental preservation!
Let us get started!
Efficient Recycling
The process of recycling is one tool in our arsenal to contain the environmental damage we have already inflicted over the planet and continue to do so. The point of recycling is to make new paper-based products from the waste paper in order to minimize the resources consumed in processing the products from fresh paper.
If a business shreds its expired paper records regularly, it not just contributes to environmental preservation, but also make the process of recycling more efficient. Here is how;
- Shredded paper is easy to recycle. Packs of paper shreds are picked up from the office-site and can be directly processed into the pulp form again skipping the shredding stage. This results in direct energy savings over a larger scale of recycling paper.
- If a business’ operations depend upon high-volume usage of paper, then paper shredding can be an extremely eco-friendly step. Recycling allows deceleration of deforestation, and gives time to nature to replenish its tree-cover. On an average, recycling a ton of paper saves about 17 trees!
- Shredded paper is an extremely useful compost material. This one is a lesser realized fact but great compost is made from a mix of ‘green’ and ‘brown’ waste. Green waste includes biodegradable waste, and brown includes shredded paper which augments the properties of the soil by preventing mold and stench!
Burning kills the environment slowly! Start shredding
Businesses have been known to practice burning the paper-records when they are no longer required. While the method might seem efficient, it is both unsecure for people and hostile towards the environment. Consider these pointers;
- Burning large stashes of paper results in unclean smoke that contains a large part of Carbon Monoxide and other toxic fumes. Smoke from burning the paper degrades air-quality drastically.
- Burning is also an unsecure way of disposing-off your confidential information. It often occurs that papers beneath the stash are left unburnt and can be scavenged for unintended usage. Moreover, fire can be put out and substantial information can be recovered. Shredding is the way to go!
Save Water by Shredding Paper!
Did you know that manufacturing 1 Kg of paper consumes 300-400 liters of fresh water? If that number is disturbing to you as it is for us, then shredding is the only viable option to dispose-off the paper correctly and send it for recycling. Paper can be recycled for various purposes between 5-7 times. By shredding your old records, you are not just saving water and trees, but also minimizing the associated manufacturing processes that degrade the environment (like transportation, chemicals, etc.).
Shredding Paper is Secure!
You sure don’t want your organization’s sensitive and confidential information to fall into the wrong hands. Keeping them preserved is just waiting for an incident to occur; disposing them improperly is no different. Shredding paper records ensures that your data is discarded correctly, and the environment gains more years to its life on Earth!
