Frequently Asked Questions

To set up an account with Shred-it, simply fill out the form on our contact us page or call 0808 239 5163 to start protecting your business today.

Shred-it provides a variety of world-class document destruction services that protects organisations against the risks of an information breach. Some of our most popular services include:

For any other enquiries regarding our services, get in touch to see how we can start protecting your business.

For any billing issues, please contact a member of the Shred-it team on 0808 239 5163 or email us at shreditcustomerservice@stericycle.com. A valued member of our team will be on hand to assist with your enquiry as soon as possible.


Occasionally due to factors beyond our control a visit could be cancelled. If this happens, we’ll do our best to inform you as soon as we are aware of an issue and reschedule as soon as possible. Please contact us for any issues regarding a scheduled service.

After the paper has been securely shredded, it is securely recycled. This process requires shredded paper being processed and baled and then categorised into two grades for market purposes – either sorted office waste or coloured heavy letter. Sorted office waste is sent to a tissue mill which produces household and business products. Coloured heavy letter is sent to paper mills that produce pulp and recycled high-grade paper.

Free shredding is a misconception. Some providers may offer you the cost savings, but they do so at the expense of your security, by cutting corners and exposing your confidential information. At Shred-it, we offer a Secure Chain of Custody with our services, from start to finish. So you know you’re always protected.

p>Our state-of-the-art shedders use cross-cut shredding technology, which destroys your confidential materials into confetti-sized pieces, so they can never be reconstructed. During the on-site shredding process, a representative of your business is welcome to come out to our specially-designed shredding truck to witness the process for added peace of mind.

At the end of each shredding service, we provide our customers with a Certificate of Destruction to confirm the exact date of service, thereby guaranteeing the safe disposal of all confidential materials.

Demagnetising, degaussing or hitting your old hard drive with a hammer will not protect you from potentially having your data stolen. Shred-it offers two types of hard drive destruction, making information irretrievable. One method is our hard drive punch which destroys the hard drive by punching a hole straight through the platters and our other method is hard drive shearing which slices the hard drive into smaller pieces that cannot be reassembled.

Shred-it is committed to protecting the environment. All the paper we shred is recycled. In fact, in 2020 alone, Shred-it recycled 1.1 billion pounds of paper.

When document shredding is done in-house, there are several hidden costs involved. Firstly, employees have to set aside valuable work hours to separate paper, remove paper clips and staples and actually carry out the shredding. Secondly, using office strip-cut shredders makes it easy for confidential documents to be pieced back together, therefore exposing the business to a data breach that could end up costing thousands of dollars. Shred-it performs the same task within minutes, with its proprietary cross-cut shredding technology to ensure that data cannot be reassembled.

Storage fees are an added cost to the business and given that all documents eventually outlive their useful purpose, why continue to pay for something you no longer need?

Retaining documents for too long can actually put your business at risk of non-compliance. It’s good practice to establish a retention schedule for the length of time records should be stored, taking into account legal privacy requirements as well as the records’ usefulness to the business. Once this retention period has passed, you should destroy your documents using a trusted partner like Shred-it.


Shred-it has options to service all jobs, large or small. Our customers range from small firms to major organisations.

Many of our locations offer drop-off services, so you can bring a small quantity of documents and get them securely destroyed. In addition, Shred-it's enterprise solutions include services designed for large organisations, such as consolidated billing, a dedicated customer service team and detailed reporting

We can shred just about anything, but we mostly shred paper. And instead of using conventional strip-cut shredders, we use cross-cut shredding technology that can reduce the paper to fine, confetti-like pieces.

Our unique technology can even destroy other materials like fabric, plastic, electronics and metals. Yes, that means CDs, USB drives, videotapes, DVDs and even casino chips.

Recycling companies are not designed to provide security for your confidential waste or comply with privacy legislation. Instead, your documents are hand-sorted off-site, primarily to ensure quality of recycled materials, which leaves your confidential information exposed. At Shred-it, our primary objective is secure document shredding, but we also recycle all the materials that we shred into a variety of useful paper products.

p>Not at all. All you need to do is put the documents into the locked containers we provide and that's it. You don't have to worry about removing anything else, not even paper clips, staples or binder clips. Our shredders can handle that.

After putting the documents into Shred-it's locked containers, they enter our Secure Chain of Custody. From collection at your site, by one of our Certified Information Security Professionals, to shredding your documents at one of our secured facilities, we protect your information every step of the way.

If your container fills up too fast, just give us a call. We’ll be happy to schedule an extra pick-up. If it starts to happen often, you have the option to add additional containers or increase the frequency of your service.

We are now offering Express and Priority services for your one-time service needs where you can schedule a guaranteed 2 or 5-day turnaround.1

Shred-it employees receive a great deal of on-going training, designed to keep them up-to-date on everything about information security, including new privacy legislation and compliance best practices. Hands-on training is provided in the classroom, online, and in the field, which means you get a knowledgeable expert who will understand your business and keep you protected.

A security risk assessment helps to determine the level of information security in your business by identifying security risks and offering tips on how to put a safe and secure document shredding program in place.

When you call Shred-it, a Certified Information Security Professional will accompany you on a walk-through of your workplace to observe the flow of confidential information, identify current practices and potential areas of risk. When they are done, they will sit down with you and review the risks - and solutions.

After the paper has been securely shredded, the confetti-sized pieces are bundled and recycled into paper products.

Shred-it is an environmentally-conscious company that takes recycling very seriously. Every year we provide our clients with a Certificate of Environmental Accomplishment, which shows the number of trees they have saved by using Shred-it's services. It's just part of what we do.

The GDPR stands for The General Data Protection Regulation. This is Europe’s new data privacy and security law, which came into effect on May 25, 2018, providing many new legal requirements for how organisations collect and store the sensitive data of people in the EU. Is your business compliant?

Regardless of your industry, or the size of your business, Shred-it’s full suite of secure document destruction services can help your organisation to remain compliant with the GDPR. Our Data Security Survey is a crucial first step to ensuring vulnerable areas of your business are identified. Get in touch today to see how our team can provide efficient, expert recommendations on how to reduce the risk of a data breach and to help keep your organisation compliant.

If your hard drive disposal process involves only erasing, reformatting, wiping or degaussing old hard drives, you and your customers are still vulnerable. In fact, if the drives are physically intact, private information can still be retrieved. Our hard drive destruction service ensures data can’t be retrieved so your business stays protected.

Yes, you can recycle hard drives, but there’s no way to ensure that hard drives sent for recycling will not be accessed by information thieves. Our hard drive destruction services apply the same proven, state-of-the-art, chain of custody protocols for hard drive destruction as we do for document destruction, ensuring safe, secure destruction of your media

Once your documents have been destroyed, your Certificate of Destruction will be sent electronically to the email address provided.

Yes, but prior arrangements must be made with the service centre for customer and service security. Please get in touch with one of our team on 0808 239 5163 to schedule a date and time to drop off. COVID-19 government guidelines must be followed.

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