The importance of document shredding can’t be overstated. Although it may seem like something that’s mundane and even unnecessary, document shredding is very important in a number of ways. It’s not just about complying with the law, but there are other benefits of document shredding.

The importance of document shredding in many business owners’ minds is due to legal liability. However, that’s only one of the reasons that document shredding is so very important. There are actual benefits of document shredding, though some of them are not as obvious as others. here are five reasons that document shredding is important to a business:

1. It’s the law. We’ll begin with the most obvious reason, which is that it’s required by law. As you probably know, certain professional licensing boards require businesses to shred sensitive documents, after a certain period of time.
2. Prevents identity theft. Here’s another good reason to shred documents — doing so can help prevent identity theft. If those documents aren’t destroyed, it’s easier for nefarious characters to collect sensitive information about others and use it for criminal purposes.
3. It helps protect employees. Document shredding not only protects your clients, but it can also help to protect your employees from identity theft, or from embarrassment among their peers.
4.  It saves valuable storage space. Shredding documents also freeze up valuable storage space, something that most companies need as much of it as they can get.

Finally, here’s something business owners don’t often think about — paper documents are a fire hazard. There’s no reason to keep old documents around because they not only waste space, they will literally be fuel for a fire.