Why use a professional product destruction service?

Destroying your inventory is hardly something you think about everyday, but there are situations when product destruction is necessary. When the time comes to dispose of excess, defective, outdated or recalled products, you might consider just doing it in-house or handing it over to a recycling facility. However, in order to best protect yourself and your business you should outsource to a professional service provider for four key reasons: convenience, equipment, chain of custody, and a certificate of destruction.

Reason 1: Convenience of professional product destruction

Product destruction is often more difficult than you might think. Whether you are looking at logos on outdated uniforms or damaged name brand merchandise, it is crucial that you take the time to make sure the products cannot be redistributed on the black market. This means the product must be rendered unusable and all logos must be marred beyond recognition. You could pay workers to spend hours of their day hand cutting logos off the merchandise and then hand cutting the logos into small pieces, but this is a waste of man hours. You have other things to do than worry about if a logo was cut up small enough. Save yourself the headache by out sourcing to a product destruction service provider.

Reason 2: Professional equipment

Doing things by hand is typically very inefficient, but using incorrect machinery might be worse. If you try to shred a shirt with an office shredder not only is it unlikely to be effective, it is also a good bet that you will destroy the machine. Professional service providers have industrial equipment that can easily and completely shred or crush products for thorough destruction. Don’t waste your money on equipment you will only use one time, let the experts handle the job with the best equipment to get the best results.

Reason 3: Clear chain of custody with professional product destruction

Imagine for a moment you need a box of 100 out-dated uniform shirts to be destroyed. You are busy, so you hand them off to an employee named Bob. You give Bob clear instructions to cut up the logos and throw everything in the trash. A few weeks later you see a new employee wearing an old shirt. It is obviously one of the shirts that should have been destroyed. When you question Bob he claims to have done exactly what you said, but he didn’t have time to finish so he had to ask Jim to finish the task.

How do your prove you actually gave Bob all 1oo shirts to destroy? How does Bob prove how many shirts he cut before handing them off? And how does Jim prove he finished the job and threw everything away properly? How did a shirt escape destruction and who is to blame?

In this scenario no real damage is done. However, what if it was a uniform for a security company that fell into criminal hands or product covered by insurance that must be destroyed or the insurance company  reimbursed? Suddenly the stakes are a lot higher. Using a professional product destruction service means there will be a clear chain of documentation every time the products change hands. For instance, there will be a note showing when and where the products were picked up and who received them. This helps eliminate any questions in the future about who handled products prior to destruction.

Reason 4: Certificate of destruction

While the chain of custody is important, it is also essential that the actual product destruction be well documented. Most service providers should send you a certificate of destruction. As the name implies, this document certifies that the specific items have actually been destroyed. This document can be used to answer any inquiries about the product destruction. It provides you with clear documentation of what was destroyed, when it is was destroyed, and who destroyed it.

If you need help with storage, destruction, or scanning projects of any size, contact DSS at (866) 381-6611 or email our service department at service@docshredders.com