Disposing of confidential documents in a responsible and secure manner has become increasingly important over the years. Organisations are obliged to comply with data protection legislation. Non-compliance can put a business at risk of large fines and even criminal prosecution. Environmental impact is another consideration in confidential waste management.

 

Un-shredded paper documents left outside for collection by the garbage men, can be easily pilfered for identity theft, corporate fraud and industrial espionage purposes. Business plans and forecasts, R&D data, customer lists, sales analysis, and security guard patrol times are all of interest to competitors, journalists and thieves of various descriptions.

 

Defence departments in all countries are in possession of extremely important and sensitive drawings and documents, which might have become redundant, but cannot afford to fall into the wrong hands.

 

Soiled bank notes, postage stamps, unused cheque leaves and high value paper are some other documents which need careful disposal.

 

Then there is the case of hard copies of sensitive design and manufacturing drawings for products that are patented or otherwise produced by corporates which would be of interest to competitors.

 

The law requires businesses to retain certain documents for a period of time, but any documents that are no longer required should be safely disposed of. Although it is a menial task, anyone handling sensitive documents during the process will need to be fully vetted with thorough background checks. 

 

There are also the CDs, DVDs, hard discs, portable drives and other computer hardware items which are used to store confidential data. It is a lot easier to make copies out of these for undesirable purposes. Hence storage and disposal do pose a problem.

 

No doubt paper documents can be shredded by using suitable shredders available in the market. However, it should be taken into consideration that from out of the shredded pieces, it is possible to reconstruct these documents. Moreover many of these wastes may be in the form of bulky files and closely packed

bundles, the density of which may make it difficult to shred them cleanly. Shredding, therefore, should not be relied upon always.

 

What do we do in the case of such documents? Specially designed free-burning incinerators, also called Security Waste Destructors, are a preferred set of disposal options. These are free burning, meaning they use the calorific value of the waste itself for burning, instead of using any external fuel.

 

These are extensively used throughout the world by governments, diplomatic missions, armed services, defence establishments, public corporations, defence research establishments, space research organisations, banking houses, research and development establishments, etc. wherever security is vital.

 

In this design, hydroxylative combustion takes place, which means the initial heat distills combustible gases which burn and are admixed with oxygen as they pass into the mixing chamber. These gases form hydroxyl groups – alcohols and aldehydes – which re-percolate through the charged material, seeking out all carbon and burning them down to carbon dioxide and water vapour. It is the penetration of theses hydroxyl gases that makes it possible to reduce bundled materials to fine ash.  

 

It is this hydroxylative combustion which removes and destroys all forms of carbon in the waste that makes it impossible to reconstruct any document. It is here this system scores over the shredder.

 

Haat manufacturers a wide range of Trash and Security Waste Destructors for this application which vary in terms of design, construction and capacity. The user can have his choice of model depending on the type and quantity of waste.

 

With regard to computer hardware, shredding could be an obvious choice because once these are broken into pieces, these can neither be used nor reconstructed. There are many models and designs of shredders available with Haat which can handle these wastes without any problem. These shredders are equipped with PLC controls and auto reversing mechanism to prevent damage to the motor in the event of overload. These are also available in a reasonably large range.