Securing opportunities

Recycling companies, particularly those that traditionally have functioned as recovered paper packers, have seen the benefits of offering secure destruc- tion services for quite some time. Paper recyclers have integrated the secure destruction of paper records into their service offerings for decades. In many cases, these companies have formed divisions, subsidiaries or associated companies to focus on building this business segment.

That is not to say that recycling companies that focus on other materials, whether they be plastics or metals, haven’t done their share of secure destruction jobs, particularly those that involve the destruction of consumer products. Companies that focus on providing waste diversion services to manufacturers and distributors also have been tasked with destroying products and packaging that could damage the manufacturer’s reputation or profitability if they got into the wrong hands.

Pricing product destruction jobs can be much less straightforward than pricing recurring document destruction services. In an article in this supplement, Dan Constant, president and founder of Sustainable Solutions LLC, Gainesville, Georgia, shares his methodology for pricing one such job that he performed a few years ago. Click here to read “Not toying around,” the article about the job that Constant and his company executed, which involved numerous material streams from plastics to batteries.

As information transitions from the physical to the virtual realm, many companies that provide destruction services are looking to diversify their businesses by adding medical waste transportation services, further capitalizing on relationships they have with hospitals and doctors’ offices. The article “Window of opportunity” looks at the hurdles these companies have had to overcome and the successes they have achieved in doing so.

As an association that represents the international secure destruction industry, the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), Phoenix, has advocated for service providers in this sector since its founding in 1994. NAID’s mission is to promote the information destruction industry and the standards and ethics of its member companies. To that end, the association has lobbied for legislation, helping to educate policymakers on the data vulnerabilities that exist when sensitive information is mishandled.

In the article “Maintaining momentum,” starting on page S5, Eric Haas, the current president of NAID, shares some of the initiatives he is focusing on for the remainder of his term in office and the successes the association has seen recently.

As you’ll learn from reading the interview with Haas, he sees a number of challenges facing the secure destruction industry in North America and abroad, but he says NAID is well-positioned to help its members address these challenges.

While secure destruction service providers no doubt are aware of these challenges, they also recognize the opportunities that lay ahead in this space.