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May. 2021

5 Facts About Document Shredding in Singapore

Document shredding has slowly become a mainstay in the corporate world. Largely due to the implementation of Personal Data Protection Act, with the latest amendments taking effect in phases from Feb 2021.
Now even more than ever, we should be protecting all our confidential information. Even residential customers are regularly engaging document shredding companies to destroy things like old mails and computer hard drives.

With that in mind, here are some interesting facts to consider about document shredding here in Singapore:

1. Document shredding is not just important for personal and cyber-security reasons, it is also the law. It is illegal in Singapore to leave any documentation in public that states personal information of any individuals like identification number etc.

2. Shredding service is NOT just for paper only. An average industrial shredding machine can shred through things like rubber bands, staples, binder files. It can also destroy hard items like hard disks, floppy disks, mobile phones.
It is however better to sort out pollutants from paper before shredding. This will ensure that 100% of the shredded paper will be recycled.

3. There are 2 types of document shredding – Cross-cut and strip-cut.
Strip-cut shredding is a typical way to shred documents using a normal office shredder. It cuts the paper into long parallel lines. This takes up a lot of time and manpower spent at the shredder can be better deployed elsewhere. Also, with a little bit of patience, the paper can still be reconstructed easily.
Cross-cut shredding means that the paper will be shredded both lengthways and widthways and that means the end product will be small particles that resembles confetti. Most document shredding companies in Singapore uses this technique.

4. After any document shredding service is complete, you will want a Certificate of Destruction from your service provider. This acts as proof that the documents or electronics are already shredded and will be crucial when the auditors come knocking.

5. Outsource large quantity shredding.
Considering employee’s salary here in Singapore is relatively high and machine maintenance can be such a big hassle, do consider outsourcing document shredding to service providers like Arkiva.
It can be as simple as just dropping your documents into secured bins and schedule automated regular collection. What’s more, shredded paper will be 100% recycled!