If you’re in the process of finding a paper shredding service in Toronto for your organization’s confidential information, you may wonder how different providers like Shred-it Toronto, Blue-Pencil, and Iron Mountain stack up. With many factors to consider, it’s important to do your research when hiring a company for secure document shredding and hard drive destruction. After all, your sensitive information is one of your greatest assets – and you want to keep it that way to avoid a data breach or fines for non-compliance.
You should also think about what matters to you: do you want to support a local company versus an international corporation? Is on-site shredding important? What about turnaround times and the efficiency of booking a shredding service?
Shred-it Toronto vs Blue-Pencil vs Iron Mountain Shredding : A Fair Comparison
Shred-it, Iron Mountain and Blue-Pencil are three secure document destruction service providers that you’re likely to come across in your search. In this article, we’ll provide a brief overview of each service to help you decide which provider is the best match for your organization.
Shred-it: An Overview
Shred-it is the largest document shredding and hard drive destruction provider in the world, serving 14 countries across the globe. While Shred-it began as an Oakville-based, Canadian company, it is now publicly owned by American company, Stericycle.
Shred-it Toronto: Service Offering
Shred-it offers three main security shred and destruction services:
- Paper Shredding: Shred-it offers on- and off-site paper shredding. On-site shredding is part of Shred-it’s premium service offering.
- Hard Drive Destruction: Shred-it offers shearing and crushing services of hard drives and digital media.
- Specialty Shredding: Shred-it provides shredding for proprietary materials, such as unwanted promotional items, sales brochures, price books, medical containers, identity cards and other items.
Shred-it: How It Works
To determine the best shredding method for your organization, you can call or request a quote online for the services you need. Pricing is based per box or bin, the type of physical destruction you require (on-site or off-site shredding), how quickly you need shredding completed, as well as the location of your service. Additional fuel surcharges and recycling recovering surcharges do apply and they can be 15-20% (or more) of the original quoted price.
Service turnaround times are approximately one week or more. For an additional cost, Shred-it does offer an expedited one-time shredding service within two-to-five days in select areas, including Toronto.
Iron Mountain Shredding: An Overview
Iron Mountain is an American company specializing in records management. They also offer document shredding and electronic media destruction for small and large businesses.
Iron Mountain Shredding: Service Offering
Iron Mountain’s shredding service destroys paper-based records, plastics and electronic media, such as data tapes and DVDs. One-time and regularly scheduled on-site and off-site shredding services are available to meet your business’ document destruction requirements.
Iron Mountain Shredding: How It Works
You can request a quote online and a U.S.-based specialist will contact you within 24 hours to discuss your shredding needs.
Pricing is based per box and the type of service you select. Iron Mountain does charge fuel surcharges, which are adjusted monthly and posted on their website.
Blue-Pencil Shredding: An Overview
Blue-Pencil is a privately-held, Greater Toronto Area-based company providing document shredding to more than 15,000 small and medium-sized companies and Fortune 500 businesses across Southern Ontario. As a NAID AAA Certified company, Blue-Pencil provides secure document destruction for your confidential information to various industries, including government, healthcare and manufacturing.
Blue-Pencil: Service Offering
Blue-Pencil only provides the most secure on-site shredding services and does not offer any off-site shredding. Services include:
- Office Shredding Program: Blue-Pencil’s regular shredding service destroys sensitive information at your location on an ongoing pre-determined schedule in a mobile shredding truck.
- One-time Shredding Service: Blue-Pencil’s one-time shredding service is a secure way to shred boxes of unwanted documents conveniently and efficiently at your location in a mobile shredding truck.
- Hard Drive Destruction: Blue-Pencil provides complete and secure on-site shredding of digital media, such as hard drives, disks, CDs and USBs. A high-speed cross-cut shredder destroys hard drives and data to ensure information can never be retrieved or reconstructed again.
- Product Destruction Services: Blue-Pencil provides specialty shredding for unneeded goods and products, including recalled products, damaged goods, branded products or other items requiring disposal in a secure and environmentally-friendly manner.
- Residential and Drop-off Shredding Services: Blue-Pencil’s residential shredding service is a convenient, on-site document destruction solution for personal documents. Drop-off shredding services are also available at Blue-Pencil’s headquarters in Oakville, Ontario.
Blue-Pencil: How It Works
During your first phone call, a customer service representative will discuss your information security requirements, provide a quote and book your on-site shredding date. Pricing is based per box and there are no additional fees or surcharges. Shredding is always completed on-site in a mobile shredding truck.
Depending on your location, your service could be completed within one business day. A fully-bonded representative will collect your stored documents from locked consoles throughout your office and transport the contents to a mobile shredding truck to be shred on-site. At the end of your service, you will be provided with a Certificate of Destruction to prove that the shredding process was completed and compliant with privacy laws. All shredded paper will be recycled and made into reusable goods.
Shred-it vs Iron Mountain vs Blue-Pencil: A Side-by-side Comparison
| Shred-it | Iron Mountain Shredding |
Blue-Pencil | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price Range Per Box | 💲💲 | 💲💲 | 💲💲 |
| Additional Fees | Fuel Surcharge + Recycling Recovery Surcharge |
Fuel Surcharge | Fuel Surcharge |
| NAID Certified North American Provider | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Booking During First Phone Call | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ |
| Ability to Have Service Completed Within 7 Days | ✔️ (but at an additional fee) | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Locally Owned | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ |
| Types of Shredding Offered | On-site, Off-site, Drop off shredding | On-site, Off-site shredding | On-site, Drop off shredding |
Start Protecting Your Business Today With Blue-Pencil!
To learn more about Blue-Pencil’s NAID Certified North American shred services or to discuss your information security needs, contact our customer service team at 1-877-821-9611 or click here for a free quote.
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