Shredder-on-wheels provides new service to Alaska.

• Author: Hearne, Jennifer
• Position: Shred-it

In response to the rise of fraud, theft and industrial espionage, Shred-it, an international shredding service that makes house calls, will soon open an office in Anchorage.

According to Greg Brophy, founder and president of Shred-It, disposal of confidential records is a critical, often overlooked step in company activities. That's why his company offers doorstep service to ensure customers' stored records are destroyed on a regular schedule.

"People actually go through each others' trash to obtain information," said Jodi Perkins, a senior account supervisor with S&S Public Relations, Inc., the Illinois-based company in charge of promoting Shred-it. "For example, if two advertising agencies are competing for an account, one agency may have someone go through the other's garbage to look for their competition's proposal."

The risks associated with the inadvertent disclosure of such information can be devastating to a business, said Brophy.

Recent court rulings have held that individuals who leave trash in plastic garbage bags on a public street should not have expectations of privacy (California vs. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35; 1988). In the case of Electro-Craft Corp. vs. Controlled Motion, the Minnesota Court System determined that Electro-Craft's former employees could use information they took from Electro-Craft's dumpsters in establishing a competing business, said Brophy. The judgment ruled in favor of the former employees because the company did not take precautions to maintain confidentiality of trade secrets (332 N.W.2d 890; Minn. 1983).

"Sensitive information of a private and confidential nature is entrusted to every business," said Brophy. "Client records, personnel records, financial documents, marketing plans and internal memos are usually meant for certain readers only. With executives today demanding guaranteed security to protect them from competition and possible litigation, our on-site shredding is like an answer to their prayers."

Shred-it provides customers with locked security consoles (on average, one per every 15 employees), which work much like mailboxes. Each hold 100 pounds of paperwork, and are placed strategically around the office so that material can be disposed in seconds. Staples, paper clips and bindings need not be removed. There is no need to separate grades or colors of paper.

A bonded representative will collect the material and shred it on site in a high-volume shredding truck. Documents are destroyed at the...