The Document Destruction Business Is Booming Thanks To Identity Theft Worries

Too Much Free Time

from the we-destroy-anything dept

A few months ago, a set of videos of massive shredding machines destroying all sorts of stuff (computers, appliances, furniture, cans, batteries, etc.) made the usual rounds of blogs and email forwards. If it made you wonder about being in the business of destroying stuff with huge shredding machines, you might be happy to know that the business is booming — mainly because of fears about identity theft. You may have gone out and bought a little personal shredder for your own personal papers (those are hot items as well), but big companies need a bigger solution apparently. They send out all of their paper to be shredded on a massive scale, and that’s allowed the companies who own those shredders to grow quickly. So, while all this identity theft is causing some companies to lose business, it apparently is helping out some other industries — and that leaves them free to run fun experiments like destroying concrete in a steel drum, a couch or even a BMW (though, the video on that one specifically notes that the product is not recommended as a regular car shredder).