Remy Fenelus doesn’t do much shredding these days at his Remy’s Custom Design tailor shop. Much of his business is done electronically.
“We almost don’t need that shredder with the e-mail,” he said. “Everything I do is on the Internet. I don’t have much to shred.”
But experts say even businesses like Fenelus’ with relatively little paperwork still need to be careful disposing of documents.
And with the proliferation of governmental regulations requiring the protection of people’s privacy, the $3 billion shredding industry is growing at a rate of 10 percent a year, according to a 2005 report by Morgan Stanley.
It’s only been in the past few years that outsourcing a company’s shredding has become common.
“I still get calls from people who see the truck and say, ‘I didn’t know anybody did this,’” said Tim Jenkins, owner of Secure Shredding, which shreds at a customer’s business or residence.
Potential liability is driving much of the market for a professionally done shredding jobs on sensitive documents, he said: “Ultimately it’s their responsibility if it gets in the public domain.”
Companies can get into trouble if they inadvertently allow someone’s identity to be stolen through a Social Security number or other confidential document, and there are also federal laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 2003 requiring health care providers to protect confidentiality.
“Before, it was basically up to the conscience of the individual or the corporation,” said Duane Rutledge, president of Waste Paper Technology Inc. “Most of it just went to the landfill and got buried, and records buried in bulk are viable for decades and decades.”
As a result of regulations such as HIPAA, there’s been a move toward professionalism in the industry, said Robert Johnson, executive director of the National Association for Information Destructio
