Writer / Matthew VanTryon
By the time you finish reading this paragraph, two people will have become victims of identity theft. Every three seconds, someone else becomes a victim. QuickShred, a shredding service in Broad Ripple, aims to prevent this crime from growing.
“Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes,” QuickShred owner Chris Shepherd said. “It takes over 800 hours for someone who had their identity stolen to get it back.”
QuickShred, which opened in 2007, shreds nearly 25-30 tons of documents per month for individuals and for 300 corporations. The business, located at the corner of 62nd Street and Binford Boulevard, is a member of the National Association of Information Destruction and has also been awarded Angie’s List Super Service Award.
Customers can watch the documents being shredded. Shepherd said the transparency the company provides gives clients a peace of mind. “We like to do it at full view so they know it’s destroyed,” Shepherd said. “It’s very comforting so they know the documents are destroyed right in front of them, right in full view.”
The shredded documents are then put into a “fluffer” where the shreds are combined with other shredded documents. The documents are put into 1,500-pound bales.
However, the company does not stop there. The shredded documents are then taken to Scotts, a paper product company based in Wisconsin, where the paper and cardboard are turned into paper towels, toilet paper and other products.
“That’s probably 20 percent of my business, the recycling part of it,” Shepherd said. “Recycling helps the earth. I save a lot of trees—thousands of trees. The cardboard, the paper, the metal and the ink all get recycled. Shepherd said the sustainability of the company helps not only QuickShred, but the recipients of the recycled products, as well. It’s a win-win for everybody,” he said.
