Confidential Waste Facts
Many businesses hold confidential digital and physical documents and records. Anything that contains sensitive data and information about employees, customers, and clients must be managed safely to reduce the risk of unauthorised access. This includes its disposal when such items reach the end of their life and become waste.
Data breaches can have severe consequences for businesses, individuals, and finances. For example, identity fraud costs £2 billion each year. Failure to protect personal data could also be a breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018, which includes General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This can lead to large fines and penalties.
Confidential waste unfortunately falls into the wrong hands sometimes, which can be incredibly damaging. Understand the scale of the potential problems with these facts and statistics about confidential waste.
Confidential waste statistics
Data breaches affect around 90% of large and 75% of small UK businesses every year. While lots of these will be online breaches and hacks, about one in five data breaches involve paper records. Safe management and disposal are vital to reduce the risk of a breach of physical or digital data.
Here are some more useful confidential waste statistics:
- If you breach GDPR, your business can be fined up to 4% of your annual turnover, or €20 million (£17.5 million)—whichever is greater.
- The Scottish Government released some figures about their confidential waste management. The amount of confidential waste collected from buildings managed by the Scottish Government and then destroyed in these two years:
- 2020/21 – 25.980 metric tonnes
- 2021/22 – 66.415 metric tonnes
- Identity fraud happens around 500 times a day in the UK
- The average cost of a data breach is around £4 million
- 21% of breaches are caused by human error
- An average email compromise attack costs businesses around £100,000
Shredded waste facts
Shredding is the main method to destroy confidential waste, both paper documents and digital devices (such as hard drives). Non-confidential waste is also sometimes shredded to dispose of and recycle, like car parts. Exact figures for the amount of shredded confidential waste produced in the UK and globally are hard to find but we’ve uncovered some stats.
Discover some facts and statistics about shredded waste:
- The paper equivalent of around 700,000 trees are recycled every year in the UK via documents sent to confidential waste shredding
- 40% of data security incidents involve paper documents
- Reasons behind these breaches include theft and posting to the wrong recipients
- 10 million tonnes of paper are used in the UK annually, but there are no specific statistics about how much is shredded
- According to one study 88% of home workers say they deal with confidential information – yet one in four claim they don’t always follow workplace policies to destroy secure data when working remotely
- The UK produces 850,000 tonnes of shredder waste each year – from shredding end-of-life vehicles and white goods
Get rid of your confidential waste
Avoid adding to any of the above statistics by storing and disposing of your company’s confidential waste securely. At Business Waste, we provide free bins, bags, and containers to separate and store your confidential items safely. This includes shredded paper or complete documents.
There are no bin hire or delivery fees – you only pay for collection. Licensed waste carriers will remove your waste and transport it to a nearby waste management facility for responsible disposal. You receive a certificate of destruction for added peace of mind that everything is managed and disposed of properly.
Get a free no-obligation quote for confidential waste collection and disposal anywhere in the UK today – call 0800 211 8390 or contact us online.
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Published 25th February 2025 by Graham Matthews.