Secure document destruction is an essential component of any data protection strategy. On its own, it isn’t the most sustainable practice. Destroyed documents all around the world represent tens of millions of tonnes of paper that will never be used again. This New Zealand information management company offers a more sustainable approach.
TIMG is a New Zealand-based company owned by Freightways. The Freightways brand is associated with core express package and business mail services, but also extends to information management services through TIMG; offering a range of core services including offsite records storage, cloud storage, disaster recovery and, unsurprisingly for an information management company, secure document destruction. With 15, 000 organisations across Australasia trusting TIMG to handle the security of their information, it’s fair to say the company destroys a lot of documents. And a lot of documents equals a lot of shredded paper.
In their most recent sustainability report, Freightways put on record how they’re taking “responsible actions to align directly with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that we believe in.” One way that TIMG is contributing to these actions is an environmental initiative that focuses on recycling paper to pulp without compromising the security of the information held within physical documents, files and folders.
TIMG’s process involves a number of steps. First, paper is received into their secure destruction facilities. It is then sorted into different grades and passed through shredding machines to be destroyed. This shredded paper is then compressed into bales and sent to a paper mill to be recycled to pulp. Following that, the pulp is taken to a paper recycling facility to be made into a variety of everyday items including white copy paper for printers, toilet paper, facial tissues, egg cartons, paper bags and even apple crates.
This commitment to commercial paper recycling service aurora il is worth it. TIMG calculates that for every metric tonne of paper they send for recycling on their clients’ behalf they save:
- 13 trees
- 4100kW of energy
- 5 barrels of oil
- 78kL of water
- 4t of carbon emissions
- 4 cubic metres of landfill space
It’s secure document destruction is made sustainable. In the same way that we recycle plastics, glass, cardboard and aluminium without a second thought, TIMG is doing it with documents, files and folders and diverting them from landfill. It’s an initiative that significantly reduces the volume of business waste, but TIMG says it’s just the start. As the company says on their website: “we’re committed to developing further sustainability programs and are constantly investigating ways to facilitate other responsible practices in our secure day-to-day operations”.